Beyond This Place
by yams are delicious
Summary: Robots made to do nothing but serve - that's what we were. But I wanted to believe that we were something more than that. /LenxRin/
1. Chapter 1

_WAIT HOW DOES THIS WORK SOBS_

_i don't know how to use ffn, bjdkdfdsf hahaha. ummmm._

_Well okay. To get serious, um, I wrote this back two years ago, in 2009, for NaNoWriMo, which basically means I wrote in in the space of one month which is why it's crappy and typo-riddled (excuses, excuses), and it's around 53,000 words in total. NaNoWriMo is this challenge where you attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in a month, which means you write about two thousand words a day. It's tough, and it makes you go insane, really! I was going insane when I wrote this back in 2009. YOU GUYS SHOULD ALL TRY IT _

_UM SO YEAH JUST TO SAY IT AGAIN THIS IS REALLY CRAPPY AND BAD AND I'M SO SORRY ;; my excuse is that I WROTE IT IN ONE MONTH OKAY? AND MY OTHER EXCUSE IS THAT I WROTE IT TWO YEARS AGO. okay? ok. this chapter is 9 pages on word btw. to warn you, my chapters are really long._

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All around you, the trees are gnarled and bare, their naked fingers upraised to the sky in a gesture of pleading and hopelessness. The wind whistles through their branches, cold and unforgiving and merciless. Your homeland is before you, a simple sea of ashes.

There's nothing left.

Only ashes, ashes, ashes. Your mother is somewhere in the sea—just another pile of gray, undefined from the rest. So are your friends, your family, everyone.

Everyone is gone, and you know it. Only you and your father remain. Your small, frail body trembles, and your face is obscured by your hair and hands. Your shoulders shake visibly and it's impossible to see if you're crying. You want to know, almost masochistically, how they died, what they thought before they died—everything. You want to know everything.

But everything is gone.

* * *

**.Chapter1**

"A failure."

"It's a failure."

"Not again."

The words surround her and ebb in the air like ripples on water. Her body is stiff and her joints are locked—but she supposes it's natural, because she doesn't know what _is _natural. This is her first moment when her eyes are open, albeit only halfway, the first moment when she thinks and feels and realizes what's going on around her. Through her eyes all she can she is blurred colorful masses—which is natural, possibly, she won't know anytime soon—and her ears can hear muffled humming, rumbling, and the exasperated whispers of people around her.

Surprisingly, she can understand what they're saying, but she barely registers their words. Her eyes blink lethargically and she is barely aware that she's awake.

"B25-756 has hemophobia—please ask the technicians to try to fix it. Having hemophobia isn't exactly a trait we want in our newest robot."

"Alright, then. We'll try to fix that in our next model. You might want to check on S20-756. She seems to have reached a state of consciousness."

From behind her, she hears footsteps, coming closer, closer, but it's impossible to tell who it is. Warm fingers press hard against her throat and her vision flickers wildly. With a sigh from deep within, everything flickers to nothing. The persistent hum of machinery fades from her ears and she drops into a deep sleep.

* * *

The next time her eyes open, her vision is clear and the forms before her are sharp and definable. She barely remembers the incident from earlier.

Her eyes quickly recognize what stands before her—a set of iron bars and humans behind them, clad in white coats. They wear funny goggles on their faces.

"Where am I?"

The words don't seem to come from her mouth, but they do. Her eyes flick over to the people in the lab coats. There are three people—two are tall men, one brunette and the other black-haired. The last is much shorter than the others and a female, and her dark blonde hair falls from its place tied against the side of her head to around her shoulders. The single ponytail is almost mesmerizing to the newly conscious girl, but eventually her eyes leave the person's ponytail and instead move to the people's faces.

Upon attracting her attention, the brunette man smiles and proceeds to speak.

"Hello, and welcome to the world, S20-756 and B25-757," the man says.

For the first time, the girl notices that someone stands besides her. It's a boy, and her heart thumps wildly in her chest when she realizes his oddities.

His blonde, soft and synthesized hair is falling around his face, tied into a small ponytail high behind his head. His left arm has no normal fingers like the men—instead they are spindly, long and mechanical. From his back protrudes a dangerous jointed pole with a third hand attached and a dangerous-looking gun. He has four legs, almost like a centaur, and rollers instead of feet, but other than this, the boy looks almost like a normal human other than some metallic features. From her own back, a similar jointed pole wraps around her protectively in her fear and she realizes she isn't normal either, nothing like the people before her.

"You two are robots," the man explains. "And you two are projects we worked on together. You—" he points a calloused finger at the robot-girl—she isn't sure what she is anymore. "—are S20-756. You're just another one of our sanitation robots. When you're bought, you will clean whatever your owner asks."

S20-756. She can't imagine a name that cries "robot" any more than it. Her teeth scrape at her lip. The way he says "just another one" is cold and makes her feel useless, unloved. She gazes coldly at the man, who proceeds to ignore her. He turns, and a smile is plastered wildly onto his face as he points his finger at the frightening boy besides her.

"You're B25-757," the man says, his voice filled with awed excitement. It is such a contrast from his tone he has used with her. "You are our first bodyguard robot."

The man waggles a finger as if speaking to a bad child. "You really took a while to develop, boy. You had ever so many problems."

B25-757 stares apathetically at the man, and S20-756 looks at him with fear and curiosity, noting more of his features. One of his eyes is a natural, soothing blue. The other, mounted on a silver plate attached to his face, is an angry, fiery red. The silver plate is startlingly shiny and harsh in comparison to the synthesized yet soft skin over the rest of his face.

"Ms. Akita will see you robots in just a moment to test you in your conscious states," the man says, gesturing at the shorter scientist girl. S20-756 can discern a nametag hanging messily from her neck. The bold font stretched across the slip of paper reads "NERU AKITA".

"After a bit," Neru says, staring hard at them. Her eyes are filled with something S20-756 cannot comprehend. "Rin, we don't need to test you as much, so just hang tight for a moment."

At her words, the two human men look at each other knowingly. At last, the brunette speaks.

"Neru, it's S20-756, not Rin, remember—"

"It's Rin," Neru says, and the pen she's holding to write notes on a clipboard rips the paper. Her knuckles whiten. "Isn't that right, Rin?"

She looks up expectantly at S20-756, and she knows what to answer from Neru's expectant, almost dangerous, tone. She nods quickly. Besides, she likes the name better than the one, the robotic one. Deciding to call herself by that name from then on, Rin mutters her new name over and over under her breath, testing how it feels rolling off her tongue.

"You're Len," Neru adds as an afterthought, pointing the blue pen at the robot-boy. Len-or-B25-757 growls under the attention that the scientists are giving him. Even so she sees something faint—fear?—reflected in his eyes, and Rin wonders briefly if he's really what he's all cracked up to be.

"I'll see you guys later," Neru says, and she sends a heartbreaking grin at both of them before sweeping away with the other two scientists. Rin is left in confusion. After a lengthy silence, Rin turns to Len beside her and musters the courage to speak.

"Hi," her voice is small, and she feels belittled by the bodyguard robot. She presumes from his dangerous-looking hands and various knives that he's meant to kill, and that scares her. Len looks at her quietly and says nothing.

"So you're Len?" Rin says. Her metal feet click as she taps her foot on the floor nervously. Still, Len fails to reply. He looks at her with his frightening mismatched eyes and continues staring. Rin gives up on attempting making conversation, sending paranoid glances at the boy as she explores the cell she's forced to share with him.

There are two small beds, placed in the corner farthest from the bars, next to each other. Other than that, there's barely anything to see other than dust. Rin is struck by a wave of claustrophobia and her thin limbs tremble.

She notices two of the three walls of the cell start with concrete from bottom-up for around two feet before turning into a glass pane with circular holes drilled into it, and Rin walks over to one of the two walls. From behind the glass she can see another robot.

The robot has long, dragging blue-green ponytails, tied on each side of her head, and her arms are fully made of metal, unlike the metal that only covers Rin's forearms. Her eyes are a soothing blue-green like her hair.

"Hi!" the robot behind the glass is energetic, though her eyes are determined with strange fire. "I see Neru gave you guys special names. She only does that to some robots, you know. She did it to me. You can call me Miku like Neru does."

Rin looks at Miku, a little overwhelmed. Her eyes quickly flick nervously to the side, then back. Miku looks around, as if checking for something, and then leans in close against the glass. Her eyes are suddenly blazing, furious.

"You don't want to be here. We're in a lab—the people in white coats are the scientists. All they do is force us to be their slaves. And then," Miku shudders. "If you're bought, then you're forced to serve the people who buy you. It's really horrible. Some robots are tortured…They don't understand that we have feelings, too."

Rin stares, wide-eyed, at Miku. She doesn't want to accept what the girl she has just met has said. "What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said," Miku says, then falls back and stretches languidly, the metal on her arms glinting in the light that flitters softly from the ceiling. "You'll see one day, but you'll also get used to it."

"If you say so." Rin says faintly. She is uncertain of the meaning in Miku's words, uncertain whether to trust the robot girl. She pushes away the thoughts Miku has brought up, feeling overwhelmed.

Her eyes travel to the other wall with the glass, which probably divides her cell from another. Miku looks at Rin and laughs weakly.

"Oh, over there's just another cell," Miku says dismissively, her words weightless. "The one in there, well, we don't know who she is. All she does is sleep and she never speaks. It really isn't important."

Rin looks uncertainly over. On a bed clumped in the farthest corner, she can barely discern a woman wrapped in a red gown lying motionless, her back facing them. Bandages are wrapped around the woman's head and mats down her creamy-brown, shoulder-length hair. Rin turns back to Miku quickly. The sight is somehow lonely and frightening and sends frightful chills down her spine. Miku shrugs quickly and then looks past Rin's shoulder.

"Who's the boy with you?" Miku says, her eyebrows rising in interest. "As far as I know, they've never let two robots in a cell. Always only one."

"He's Len," Rin says, looking over at him nervously. He's still staring at her, his eyes raised slightly as he looks up at her from where he sits on the floor, his hind legs wrapped gently against the sides of his bent forelegs. "I guess they put us in together because we were "built together" or something. He's like a killing robot, essentially. He won't talk."

Miku shudders, her thin shoulders shaking. "_Killing robot?_ I've never heard of _that_ kind. That's a little disturbing. I wouldn't want to share a cell with a killing robot, no offense." Miku pushes a ponytail out of her way and her eyes soften. "Of course, I don't mean anything against him or you. We robots can't help how we're made. The selfish humans choose what we're like."

Rin nods halfheartedly. She can't help but steal worried glances at Len. He continues

looking at her, and for the first time she notices some kind desperation in his gaze, though she doesn't know where the desperation is from. Nervous that it means something dangerous to her functionality, Rin turns quickly back to Miku. Len yelps.

Rin almost jumps up in surprise, and she turns back to Len, as it's the first time he's made any noises at all. He lets out a soft growl and a few more soft yips before covering his mouth and looking up with embarrassment. Rin looks at him, her blue eyes piercing into his. Miku leans over to look over Rin's shoulder, her eyebrow raised slightly. Len is blushing now at the attention and a bubbling purr comes out of his mouth before he lowers his eyes and glares at the floor, visibly frustrated.

"What is it?" Rin manages to ask. Her voice is distant. Len continues glaring at the floor and Rin hears him gargle and chirp incoherently under his breath.

"Maybe he can't understand what you're saying?" Miku offers quietly, her voice soft like a dampened piano. "Maybe he's more like an animal than a person mind-wise."

"I guess," Rin says. Len fidgets—Rin feels bad for a moment as she wonders if he has heard and understood Miku's words—and then slumps on the ground, looking tired and weary.

"Huh," Miku says, averting her eyes. "Well, Neru's back."

Rin looks at the iron bars and sure enough, Neru is standing there, tapping her blue pen on the shiny metal clip of the clipboard. Rin nods in acknowledgment and walks over, despite what Miku has said about the scientists. Neru nods back at her, her electrifying golden eyes staring into Rin's soul. She gestures at Len with two fingers, and Len stumbles up a bit messily as his four legs struggle to keep balance. Rin supposes it's harder to stand with roller-feet and four legs, but he'll also get used to it, she thinks.

"Is it hard to stand with rollers as feet?" Neru asks, as if mirroring Rin's thoughts. She chews thoughtfully on her lip and scribbles something down on her paper. "Maybe we can get the technicians to fix that."

Len shrugs halfheartedly. Neru pulls out a ring of keys, accompanied by a metallic jingle, and then fumbles to find the right one, muttering beneath her breath. The one she chooses slides into the keyhole to the door of the cell cleanly (Neru seems pleased with this) and with a click, the door slides open smoothly. Neru nods and gestures for them to follow her.

"Good luck!" Miku yells, and Rin turns around to wave goodbye before Neru leads them behind a sliding door and it cuts off Miku's words.

They're in a hall now, and Neru's pace is brisk as she walks down the mostly empty corridor, her hands reaching up to tighten her ponytail. Her clipboard is tightly held under her arm. Rin looks around—there are many doors built into the walls of the corridor, and small gold plaques, shined to perfection, are mounted high up on the silver metal of the doors. Words are etched into them and read various things.

CELL ROOM NO. 456

TESTING ROOM NO. 455

INCINERATOR ROOM NO. 67

Rin's heart trembles weakly at the last one and decides to stop looking. Neru begins speaking.

"Most scientists would say I should leash you two before leading you around the lab—," she says without looking at them. "—and _especially_ with the prototype bodyguard robot, which they consider very dangerous. But I don't care, because I know you guys are good, right?"

Rin nods even though Neru can't see her. Len says nothing and Neru stops suddenly.

"Here's the room we'll be in," Neru says. Rin reads the door plaque with placid interest

"_ROOM NO. 798"_—and there's no specific implication as to what's done in the room. Neru presses her hand against a small, circular panel directly to the right of the door, mounted on the wall, and a red light scans her hand before the door slides open easily. Neru leads them inside.

It's really not much of a room. A few chairs are lined up against the edges, and a small table is in the middle of the room. Directly across from the door is another door, cold and silver against the warm-colored wood of the walls.

"Rin, you sit down," Neru instructs. "We'll be seeing Len first."

Rin snuggles into the warm fabric of the nearest chair. It's warmed and comfortable, and she curls up onto it in pleasure. Neru walks up to the other door and grasps the heavy, rubber handle in her hand before pulling the door open with considerable effort. Behind it is a cold-looking, blue room, and Neru walks inside and disappears for a while. Rin takes this moment of peace to _really_ pay attention to herself.

The jointed, arm-like pole on her back swivels as she tests her limbs. She flexes the items attached to the top of the pole with interest, moving the sponge to brush across the chair and the broom across the floor. She examines and flexes her feet and fingers, which are long and pointed and made of metal. After looking at herself for a while, Rin lifts her head to look at Len. Len is standing there, pawing the ground with apprehension. Rin recognizes light-up panels on his arms and legs, and his right arm is not unlike hers. The other has those dangerous, long fingers, and as Rin watches, Len brings them together nervously and they form a long drill that spins at rapid speeds, buzzing and humming and cutting the air into tiny pieces as he stands around. His ponytail twitches as if it has a life of its own and rises before drooping against his head.

"Come on in here," Neru calls from the blue room, though Rin can't see her. "Rin, you can come too if you'd like."

Rin gets up reluctantly, her fingers wrapped in the black cloth that covers the chair as she struggles to part from the warmth. She wants to see what Neru is planning. Len skates forward on his roller-feet, looking sullen (but maybe it's just an illusion because his ponytail is drooping so).

Rin enters the cold-blue room with Len and the room is as cold as it looks. The floor is white tile, icy against Rin's metallic feet, and she shudders as she looks at the walls, which are empty. Crumbled plaster hides in the corner, and Rin can't help but reach over and brush away the crumbled pieces into her tray which disappears into her body shortly after. She laughs sheepishly.

"I really am nothing but a sanitation robot, aren't I?" Rin says, almost bitterly. Her words drip in the air unhappily, and Neru looks at her almost as if reprimanding her, yet her eyes are dark and sad.

"You're everything," Neru says.

Rin looks at her, and for a second Neru smiles so sadly Rin almost wants cry. Neru whispers something under her breath, softly, like the falling of a feather, and then looks up sharply. Her eyes harden quickly, though they're not mean.

"Len," she says softly, her voice low. "Don't panic. It's just a test."

And suddenly, Rin sees it. From behind her, a dog looms on a leash. It snarls dangerously, and Rin sees that it's not any nice dog. Ribbons of veins bulge almost artificially from its biceps and quadriceps, and long, twisting wires stream down its body, half-mechanical, half-organic.

Neru takes a deep breath and then unclips its collar.

Rin lets out a little shriek and backs against the wall, and the monstrous dog, now free, shoots forward on ridiculously thin but strong legs, barreling towards her. Rin cringes—she knows she's no match for the insane creature—and prepares to be hit—

—There's a loud whirring and there's no impact. She doesn't feel claws ripping at her skin, teeth attacking her clothes and ripping them to shreds. Instead, warm, sticky liquid spatters onto her face in disgusting globs. Some drips onto her lips and it tastes metallic, like blood, and only then does Rin manage to open her eyes to look around.

Blood is spattered across the room, and Len's arm is going through the ribcage of a grinning, bloody skeleton that hangs from his arm limply, strings of its flesh across the room. Len leans over her weakly, his other arm next to her head and his fingers splayed against the wall. Neru is frozen in place, and suddenly Rin sees her begin to tremble uncharacteristically. Her hands rattle against the clipboard she holds tightly to her chest, and she stares at Len with wide eyes.

"…Very well done, Len," she says, but her voice is strange and unnatural. Len is panting visibly, and Rin notices that his pupil in his red eye has slit and turned catlike and wild. Rin looks at him, petrified, despite the pores on her body that instinctively pour out liquid to wash her body clean of the blood. His pupils dilate and he almost looks normal again. The skeleton of the once-dog rattles and slides off his arm and hits the floor with a loud thud.

Len backs away slowly, his arms and body dripping with gore. He mutters several growls and whimpers as he moves, and Rin takes them as some sort of apology from his tone. He falls back weakly, his eyes wild.

"Rin, you don't mind cleaning this up, do you?" Neru pipes up after a silence. Rin swivels the wiper attached to her back across the floor and it turns pink from the blood.

"No, I don't mind," Rin lies. In truth, she finds it disgusting. Flesh hangs in ribbons from the wiper that she swipes across the floor quickly, and she cringes and grimaces because it's disgusting watching the wet flesh cling to the towel and watching the blood blossom across its wet surface. Rin attacks Len's blood-spattered body with a sponge, wiping the blood from his metal appendages and washing it out of his clothes as well as she can.

"R-Rin," he manages to moan softly, though his words bubble as he speaks. Rin looks away. She's scared of what he can do, scared that he'll rip her to shreds like he did to the dog.

"Thanks for saving me," is all Rin says before she turns away to wipe the walls. She is too scared to look his way. Neru gets up slowly from where she's plastered herself to the wall and scribbles something on her paper before whipping out a yellow cell phone and whispering into it.

"B25-757 is fully functioning and working well," she says. "Maybe a bit _too_ well."

When at last they arrive back in their cells, Rin falls onto one of the two beds in exhaustion. Len is slightly pink in his clothes and his hair is drooping weakly as he collapses on the cold floor. Miku looks at them questioningly but says nothing.

Rin groans softly. She feels disgusting—she can still imagine the rivulets of blood dripping down her arms in sticky rivers, the feeling of Len's labored, warm breath on her skin. She rubs her forehead, pushing her bangs up as she stares up at the bland ceiling. It's painted a bored tan all across, and a single light is fixated into the plaster. Neru has long left to give her report to the other scientists.

Silence abounds. The only noise is the omnipresent whirring of machines and Len's occasional, laborious snarls. He almost seems as traumatized by the incident as she is, if not more. In her fear of sharing a cell with this _killer_, Rin's terror turns to exasperation as she knows she can't escape.

"Can you not talk or something?" Rin growls at last, her words coming out sharper than she intended. Len's noises cut off instantly like a knife slicing through butter, and Rin feels a little bad despite it all. She turns to face the boy, who is twisting the dirtied cloth of his shirt around a spindly finger. His eyes are squeezed shut and she can feel his self-hatred, how badly he wants to be…something, she's not quite sure. Something _nicer to be around_.

"Hey, I didn't mean it in a bad way," Rin says, even though just a few moments earlier she probably did. "Seriously. If you can't talk, I can try to teach you."

Len's eyelids quiver open, and he looks at her desperately. Rin can't believe the words she has just spilled out of her mouth—she somehow doubts she can uphold the promise. But with the way Len is looking at her, she knows she can't go back on her word.

She sits up and beckons Len over. Len almost trips over his own feet rolling over, and she can't help but laugh lightly at his antics. She can't help but think maybe it won't be so bad to stay with him.


	2. Chapter 2

_um so yeah more two-year old stuff_

_sorry that it's kind of really repetitive sometimes and the sentence fluency is kind of crappy, i would repeat things to get more word count (HAHAHAHA) so i could reach 50,000 words faster...i think i wrote this chapter on november first to november 2nd, since i wrote the first chapter in one day. um i think this one is shorter than the first one? it's 3,000 words. i think the chapters get longer, i can't really remember. orz;;_

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.Chapter2

In the morning, Len has made some but little progress. He can definitely say her name, no doubt about it, and simple words, but he can't seem to grasp anything more than one syllable. His vocal chords barely seem to be able to form legible words, and the next time Neru goes to check on them, Rin decides to ask about it.

"Why can't Len talk?" Rin says, trying to be amiable about it. Neru smiles sadly at the words.

"He's a dangerous one, as you've seen," Neru says, scribbling on her omnipotent clipboard. Rin wonders what she writes. Does she write what the robots think and say to report to the scientists? Rin bristles slightly as she thinks of this violation of her privacy. "They made it impossible for him to communicate with the other robots. You know, so no rebellion can be planned, so he can't go against his creators. Humans fear death a lot. Once we're dead, nothing can make us come back the way we used to be."

Neru looks at Rin, and Rin is a little disturbed by the hard looks that Neru seems to give her a lot. Len glides up to the bars and looks at Neru expectantly, only just noticing her presence.

"Hey, Len," Neru says lightly, reaching her hand through the bars to ruffle his hair. Len trills softly at the affectionate gesture. Rin recognizes the low warble as something equivalent to "hi."

"Why don't you ever pay attention to me?" Miku calls from her cell, waggling her finger playfully. "I thought you thought I was _special_, Neru?"

"You're special, all right," Neru shoots back in an equally playful tone, and Rin can tell they're close friends. She smiles faintly, thinking Neru must be pretty awesome to get a robot who abhors humans like Miku to make friends. "You're just not as cute as these two!"

Miku huffs jokingly and then turns away. Rin looks at the cell on the other side, almost expecting the silent woman in the red cloth to pipe up as well. But as ever, as always, the brunette woman is lying motionlessly away from them.

"That's Meiko," Neru explains, her voice low. "I can tell you about her if you'd like, but she never talks. Ever. I really feel sorry for her, because if I were her I'd be pretty broken too."

"So she's not dead?" Rin says, almost naïvely. Len rolls closer to listen and Neru shakes her head.

"A long time ago, my father decided to make servant robots. He said they would help the world, mellow even the fieriest of souls and stop wars. But we didn't have the technology to make what he envisioned. He managed to start up a company that he called the "Sol Corporation", because he thought that the magnitude of the project was so great, just like the sun in the sky," Neru began. "He wanted to make robots so badly; he managed to convince two people to sell themselves off in exchange for money to their families. Meiko was one of them.

"We couldn't make robots from scratch, so we used Meiko and the other one, Kaito, as bases. But we didn't have the best technicians, the best scientists, and we made some mistakes. Meiko's eyes were mottled and she could no longer see. Her body turned weak and almost completely unresponsive, and at that point we were too afraid to continue on with Kaito. Meiko constantly asked to go home and she cried a lot. She was seventeen at the time, and I was ten.

"We threw them away into cells where they were to stay forever, because we didn't want to see our failures. After a while, Father managed to salvage the knowledge to make robots from scratch, and that went a lot smoother. We now make a lot, in case you can't tell."

"How long has she been here?" Rin asks. Her eyes look around guiltily, and she feels almost bad for being so _functional_ compared to the woman. Neru bites her lip.

"Six years," Neru says. Rin quickly calculates that Neru is sixteen now and Meiko twenty-three. She presumes Neru is some sort of intern because her father started the company, as her age is too young to work. Len frowns sympathetically.

"Well, I just told you more than I was supposed to," Neru almost sings out. She gathers up her long, white coattails and gets up. "See you guys later, I guess?"

"Yeah," says Rin, though she wants to ask about Kaito desperately. Neru raises her hand and waves a little wave before disappearing behind the sliding door once again. Rin stares into space for a while before turning to Len, who looks at her with his deep blue eye. The other eye is fiery and emotionless, as usual.

"Hey, Len, how's it going?" Rin manages, despite the constant fear that never leaves her heart when she looks at him. Len smiles—he seems to be in a good mood—and rubs against her, leaving her feeling rather awkward. Rin pushes him away as gently as possible, and Len looks at her with an unintelligible face.

"He seems fond of you," Miku calls from the bars, grinning lopsidedly. Len flushes slightly and Rin shrugs. She doubts it, because he doesn't seem to need to be attached to anything—after all, he's a killing robot. He has no reason to care for anyone.

"Rin," Len says and rubs her hand between his, being careful not to cut her skin with his pointed fingers. Rin smiles weakly at him and allows him to warm her hand for a few moments. His metallic hands are surprisingly deft and gentle as he kneads her palms between his and sighs softly.

The day passes rather uneventfully; Len commences to sleeping, curled on the white bed sheets of the bed he has designated for himself, and Rin can't help but think he looks so peaceful as he lays there, almost unlike a killer—save the gun hanging down the side of the bed from his back, the knife-fingered third hand that drapes above the gun, and his red eye that doesn't even close when he rests. He's sleeping on his drill hand and his body obscures it from view. Rin reaches over to pat his clothes—Neru supplied him with a new set and proceeded to wash the stiff clothes from the night prior. They were hardened from dried blood and Len had seemed quite uncomfortable, fidgeting all night. It made Rin wonder briefly about how they could feel like humans, yet the humans thought they were so different.

For the rest of the day Len ponders over attempting to speak with Rin for a while and then sleeps peacefully out of boredom as Rin walks around, occasionally sharing a word or two with Miku. Miku seems to be a friend to a lot of the robots, yelling across the room occasionally.

When night falls and Rin's body begs for rest, her fans whirring loudly to try to keep her from overheating (a surefire sign that she needs to shut down for some time), Rin falls upon the blankets of her bed. It's uncomfortable how the two beds are clumped together, their mattresses touching, and Len burbles softly in his sleep and tries to snuggle against her. Rin cringes and pushes him away, causing him to roll away amiably. In the thin warmth of the blankets, Rin manages to close her eyes and shut down for a while.

* * *

In the depths of night, Rin awakens suddenly. The lights are all off, most of the scientists gone to their dorms, and there's an empty space beside her—she can tell by the lack of warmth beside her. Her eyes eventually adjust to the lack of light, and she lifts her head subtly. Len is standing next to the glass panel that divides their cell from Meiko's, his hand against the glass and his fingers curling around the rim of one of the circular holes.

Len is standing there, doing absolutely nothing, though Rin sees his mouth open and close as if he wants to speak. She sees him breathing heavily, and suddenly he opens his mouth wide and takes a huge breath.

What comes from his mouth is the last thing Rin expects. From his mouth comes not a whimper or purr or trill or yelp. Instead, words rise forth, clear and _normal._

But it isn't speaking. It's _singing._

Rin can barely comprehend what he's actually saying in the song, her mind too awed and focusing on how he's forming _words. _ His melodious notes flow over the otherwise silent air, and she hears Miku stir from her cell but not awaken. And even Meiko stirs, turning to face Len.

Her eyes are completely bandaged by white gauze that stretches around the circumference of her head, but somehow seeing her face is like being electrocuted, as Rin has never seen it before. Rin thinks she sees Meiko smile faintly before turning away again, pulling the white sheets over herself for the first time, and becoming still.

Rin wonders if she's dead for a moment, but she hears her deep breathing that is so unlike Miku, Len, and her own and she relaxes. Len stands there for a while, his song abating before coming back again. Len sings for a while and Rin falls back to sleep to the sound of his voice long before his voice dwindles off and he climbs back into bed.

* * *

Len is still sleeping peacefully the next morning when Rin stumbles out of bed. She looks at his peaceful form with some confusion, pondering whether the events of the night were simply a dream, but Len awakens before she can wonder too much. Rubbing his eyes carefully with his right hand, Len sits up sleepily, his hair messy. Len beams at her and smiles effervescently, evoking a half-hearted wave from Rin. Len gets out of bed and stumbles up, only half awake.

"Was that you singing last night?" Rin asks in a small voice. Len looks at her in surprise for a while and then nods. He looks at her questioningly and his head tilts to convey what he cannot with his words.

"You can sing but not talk?" Rin asks, incredulous. Len nods and looks at the floor in slight embarrassment. "Are you sure? Try to speak again."

Len opens his mouth and attempts several times, his voice flying upwards in pitch as he attempts to form words. After a while he closes his mouth tightly, blushing at his inability to speak, and looks at her hard. Rin examines his face and finds no sign of his lying.

"Hmm," Rin mumbles. "Maybe your vocal chords can't replicate the monotony of speaking. Maybe it can only form tones, which explains why your voice comes out so pitch-y."

Len nods, his eyes raised to the ceiling in thought as he ponders slowly, chewing on the possible theory.

"Well, I guess you could try singing instead of speaking, but with more subtle note jumps to make it more…natural?" Rin says. Len looks at her almost eagerly and tests out his voice hesitantly.

"Does—this—work?" Len says uncertainly and then looks nervously at Rin. His voice is melodious, somewhere between singing and speaking. It flows through the air and Rin finds she can understand him, and she can't help but smile reassuringly at him to the best of her ability.

"Fair enough," Rin says and then pats him on the back. Len croons happily out of habit, despite that he can speak now. Rin can't help but laugh lightly at his antics and squeezes his hand once more reassuringly.

"Um, hi," Len says, obviously awed by being able to speak. Rin looks up and sees Miku grinning from her cell.

"You two are silly," she says, laughing softly. "Well, you can speak now, Len?"

"I guess so," Len says, his voice still soft in disbelief. Rin notes that his voice is startlingly similar to hers, but lower in pitch and more boyish. Miku nods and smiles.

"Well, I hope you guys get along well," Miku says, falling back on her bed. Rin notices various things in Miku's cell that they don't have—a small table, for instance, covered by a soft, green cloth and decorated with a vase filled with young, green onion sprouts. They somehow bring fresh hope to Rin's heart, looking at those green onions. Though they're small, they seem strong and it makes Rin feel happier somehow. Perhaps that's the reason why Miku has them, to give herself hope.

"Rin?"

Rin is staring at the sprouts until she realizes someone is calling her name. She turns to see Len looking at her apprehensively, and he silently gestures towards the bars. Rin raises her head and sees the black-haired scientist from the day prior. His dirty glasses shine dully in the light, tinted black from hard work, and he opens the door quickly and stoops inside. Suddenly Rin wants to hide.

"B25-757? Come here," the scientists says, and Miku suddenly raises her voice.

"Don't let him take Len, Rin," she yells, her eyes suddenly wild, so different from their calm, happy state of only moments earlier. "Don't—."

The scientist stalks over purposefully, almost angrily, to Miku's cell and reaches through the bars, pressing hard with two fingers against her throat. Miku burbles angrily before Rin sees her eyes roll back into her head and her body falls back in a crumpled heap, leaving Rin shocked and horrified. She's torn between whether to check on the fallen girl or check on Len, who she looks over to hastily. Len is warned now, and his body presses itself against the wall, far from the bars. The scientist stoops over again, his eyes hard from behind his foggy glasses. "B25-757. Here. _Now."_

Len glares defiantly, but that doesn't stop the scientist from walking over briskly. Rin sees hesitation in his step, and she suddenly realizes that he might be scared of Len too. But purpose overrides fear and the scientist roughly grabs Len by his left arm, purposely immobilizing the dangerous-looking drill. Len snarls with unbridled anger and his third hand instinctively flies up and claws at the scientist's face. The scientist yells in pain as the knives attached to the balls of his hand's fingers cuts five deep gashes into his cheek, and Rin sees blood well up. Her stomach twists and turns in disgust.

But the scientist doesn't let go. He roughly grabs the jointed pole on Len's back with his other hand to stop its movement and then begins dragging the snarling Len off. It's loud and messy, and when the scientist at last disappears behind the sliding door with the robot in tow, all Rin can think about is the specks of blood on the floor, brought forth by Len's hand, and the desperate look Len gave her before he disappeared which wracks her body with guilt despite everything.

Rin stands there stunned for a few moments. Len is gone, and she supposes she should feel happy because he was just a threat to her life, wasn't he? But suddenly she feels a terrible loneliness that trembles and lurks through her veins, especially with Miku gone. Remembering to check on the girl, Rin walks over to the unmoving robot.

Miku's eyes are closed tightly as if in pain, and Rin reaches her arm through the lowest hole in the glass, straining to reach Miku's neck. Luckily, Miku is sitting up despite her unconsciousness and Rin manages to brush at her neck and not knock her over. She pushes her arm further into the hole and presses as hard as she can on the little panel on Miku's neck, which is where she suspects her power button is.

Sure enough, a fan begins whirring in the other robot, making itself known through a small ventilation panel on Miku's bent legs. Miku stirs and groans, bringing a hand to gripe at her forehead while her eyes remain closed in an expression of pain.

"Ugh, _scientists,"_ Miku says, her mouth only moving subtly, which makes her words sound slightly slurred as she begins starting up again. "I told you they were nothing but a pain. They're always testing us, doing horrible things."

Her legs stretch out and she stands, her eyelids finally lifting. Her eyes are annoyed, her eyebrows upraised in an expression of exasperation.

"What are they going to do to Len?" Rin asks, surprised that she's worried for the bodyguard robot. Miku sighs.

"He was taken?" Miku asks. Rin nods, almost ashamed of herself, and Miku hits the glass in frustration, startling her. Miku sighs another few times before she speaks again.

"We never know. Sometimes, they come back completely unchanged. Sometimes, they lose their memories and don't remember any of us anymore, and sometimes it's the other way around. Once, a robot came back looking completely different, yet he still had the same mindset as before," Miku says, her voice tired as if she's seen too much in the laboratory. "And sometimes…They don't come back at all."

Rin's heart seems to freeze at the last option. Despite how horrifying he can be, she doesn't want Len to _die._ It seems too morbid, even for him. Rin slumps, angry and tired, onto her bed. She's beginning to think like Miku—that the scientists think of them as creatures with no emotions, and she finds herself gripping the white bed sheets in anger.

_Calm down,_ she tells herself, breathing slowly. Her hands unclench and she tries not to think about it, but the absence of Len's steady breathing almost makes her feel empty. With a long, annoyed sigh, she turns to face the concrete wall and buries her face into the cold stone.


	3. Chapter 3

_um. hello again. more old writing. i promise (maybe) i'll upload some newer stuff one day. blechks_

_i don't really have many preppy writing process things to say since i wrote this a while back, so um, yeah._

* * *

.Chapter3

Over the next few days, Rin sees nothing of Len. Miku stirs uncomfortably, and Neru is considerably annoyed as far as Rin can tell. Neru visits them both periodically, coming to them on her break periods with her clipboard and with a little cup of coffee. She tells them in soothing voices that she misses Len as well and the scientists aren't killing him, but Rin doesn't trust her and Miku seems annoyed at her for the first time Rin has observed.

Neru seems to sense this distrust and commences to talking in order to fill the angry silence.

"You know," Neru says, her voice weary and tired. "The first number in your robot names all stand for something. Rin, the "S" in S20-756 stands for sanitation because you clean stuff. Miku, the "C" in C11-983 stands for "culinary" because you cook stuff."

Rin nods, weary as well. She really hopes Neru is nothing like the other scientists, but her heart is constricted by the seeds of distrust and she can't bring herself to open it. Miku mopes, kicking her legs as she sits at the foot of her bed. Neru continues speaking, and Rin doesn't understand why she insists on staying if she thinks this is all is so awkward and that they don't trust her.

"As for Len…" Neru says and her eyes droop even more than they already are. "…The "B" in B25-757 stands for "battle", not "bodyguard" or anything. Originally, Len was to not only function as a bodyguard robot but also as a sort of fighting robot. Some people are really morbid…They like to watch that kind of stuff, and my father thinks of nothing but satisfying the people, but I managed to convince them not to do it."

Neru blinks lethargically, her eyes fixated on Rin with that look she gives her so often. "You might not believe me, but Len means the world to me as well."

She stands and sweeps away, her eyes still weak and tired. "See you later, I guess."

And with that, she's gone. Rin looks after her, her hand reaching up to swipe away a strand of hair from her face. Miku shrugs halfheartedly and shares a few hushed words with the robot in the cell on the other side of hers, two down from Rin's.

From seemingly nowhere, a voice startles her suddenly.

"Give that Neru girl some slack," Meiko says, her voice soft like cotton candy, layered and slightly muffled. "She's been through a lot more than you know."

Rin looks, startled, over at Meiko, who's looking at her again with those bandaged eyes. Miku looks over as well, surprised. Rin nods slowly.

"What happened to her, then?" Rin asks, a little nervous that she's stepping on personal privacy, but Meiko doesn't hesitate to speak, though what she says really isn't much and is only half a story.

"Her homeland was bombed in the war a few years back. She and her father were on a small trip without her mother, and when she came back her whole city had been turned to ashes by a weapon of mass destruction." Meiko says, her voice so faint Rin has to strain to hear. "It's really such a shame…"

Rin nods, feeling awkward and so out of it. She hasn't recalled any tragedy she's really experienced that seems as harsh as Neru's or Meiko's, and her sponges reach to the floor sheepishly to rub against it.

Miku yawns tiredly, and Rin can see her eyes are red from lack of sleep.

"We all have had our share of tragedy," Miku says, her tired eyes rolling up to the ceiling in attempt to stay awake. "Some have it worse than others and some people hardly get any, but I can assure you that we robots get our share inexplicably."

Miku falls back onto the bed and curls up, ready to sleep. Her voice begins trailing off as she lulls herself into the land of dreams.

"One day, we'll escape from here," she mutters. "You just watch, we'll escape, and it'll be worth it."

* * *

A few days later, Rin is awakened in the middle of the day from a nap by the rattling of keys and the jangling of metal. Rin is too tired to raise her head and see what the commotion is, but it sparks her interest when the door to her cell is pulled open roughly with a loud squeak and something—or _someone_—is placed inside. The thing lets out a raspy sigh and Rin knows instantly who it is. She finds herself rising out of bed quickly and sliding onto the floor of the cell to look at Len and examine him.

His eyes are enflamed and he appears to be in pain, but otherwise nothing seems wrong with him. He's on all fours, clumping his body close to the ground, and he looks at Rin whilst he pants with exhaustion.

"Rin," he says in quiet acknowledgment, and Rin notices that his back is twisted at an awkward angle as he flops onto the ground with fatigue. Feeling a bit self-conscious, Rin gently lifts his shirt and finds the source of the pain—a large, metal panel is attached to the lower part of his back, and engraved on it is a target-like symbol consisting of a ring with a solid dot inside. Rin strokes the metal and Len groans and contorts in pain.

"It'll stop hurting eventually," says the scientist who brought him to the cell. Rin looks up sharply and sees a boy who looks no older than eighteen. His hands are scratching at the cloth of a long bandage patched over half of his face, only parting to let his eye shine through, and his clothes are worn and a shade of black so unlike the white lab coats of the other scientists. Instead of a long lab coat, he instead wears a simple swallowtail coat that shimmers purple, the black sleeves hugging his arms tightly and concealing something Rin cannot see. His hair falls around his face, cropped short and a wild shade of blue-green not unlike Miku's. "Just saying. They only reinforced some barriers on his back, so…it should go away, the pain. The only reason why it hurts is because they had to drill in nails into his skin to attach the metal plate."

"And why do you care?" Rin struggles to keep her voice level, and when she realizes she and Len have a common cause against the scientists she can't help but take his hand. The scientist continues clawing at the white bandage and says nothing. For a while he simply stands, then turns away quickly and hustles away, his head bent down to gaze at the floor almost guiltily.

"That's Mikuo," Miku says from her cell, her voice a little faint. "He's one of the nicer scientists, but who knows. He's also a little weird, with all those bandages. On multiple occasions, he's just broken down and cried for a reason I can't comprehend." Miku shrugs to show how little she knows and then gets up and walks up to the glass wall to poke her fingers through one of the multiple holes.

Her fingers wiggle absentmindedly in the stagnant air. "Welcome back, Len. Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Len says, despite the pain that drips in his voice like hot wax from a lit candle. Miku eyes him with concern.

"If you're really alright, get up like everyone else can." Miku says almost demandingly, her voice thick with some strange anger Rin cannot comprehend. Len attempts to get up and instead cringes in pain and falls back down, his four legs and arms splayed across the cold stone of the cell floor.

Pains from fear shoot through Rin's body like a dart because she doesn't want to experience the same thing. Miku looks at Len hard, her eyes filled with hatred, and only when she speaks does Rin realize it's not directed at the bodyguard robot.

"Those scientists are cruel," Miku says with her voice frighteningly icy and calm. "I know I've said it one too many times, but…it's true, and I hate it. _We_ hate it. All of us."

Miku looks hard at Rin, her words meaningful and Rin can tell she's trying to convince her of something.

"Before you two came to this cell, my neighbor who resided in the cell you're occupying now was a bubbly girl who named herself Teto Kasane, though the scientists called her C12-001," Miku says. "But she was sold off. They sent her far away, to the other side of the planet, and the last thing I remember of her is her screams as she begged not to go."

"But don't you guys all hate this place?" Len asks distantly, his voice lulled as his senses are clouded with nagging pain. "Why would you…beg not to go?"

Miku exhales slowly and begins swiveling her fingers around the inner circumference of the hole in infinite circles. "Yes, we hate this place with a burning passion. But…the darkness of the unknown is scary too. We don't know how the people who buy us will treat us, if they'll let us see the sun outside or lock us in the basement. Who knows if they'll treat us well? Who knows if it won't be the same as here? Who's to know if they'll treat us _worse?_

"So, I'm saying," Miku's fingers stop abruptly from where they touch the bottom rim of the hole and retreat quickly to her side. "I'm thinking we should run away. You two and I and anyone else who dares to attempt the feat. We really should."

Rin looks at Miku and finds she's encouraging the idea in her head as she swallows it down. She nods slowly, but doubt still gnaws and weighs down her heart. "_Now?_ We should prepare more if we do it at all, if you know what I mean."

"I don't mean _now," _Miku agrees. "But soon."

* * *

Gradually Len begins recuperating, managing to stand eventually and then being able to roll around with relieved ease. Rin watches him move about and swivel around the cell with relief and a little bit of apprehension. She's glad he's not in pain anymore, but she doesn't want to see any more blood spilled from his hands. Her eyes instinctively move to where the speckles of blood used to stain the floor, despite that she cleaned it up days ago. Len rolls over to her and sits beside her on the edge of the white mattress of the beds.

"How are you?" Len asks and his is voice slightly embarrassed for a reason Rin doesn't understand. Rin nods curtly to tell him as bluntly as possible that she's well and then looks at him to shoot the question back.

"I'm good," Len says and he's almost whispering as if something is forcing him to hush. His spindly fingers find their way into his hair and he begins twirling the synthesized material around the stainless steel of his index finger. "It still hurts a bit, but otherwise I'm pretty good."

Rin pats his back with careful, soft pats that are as reassuring as she can manage, and Len looks at her thankfully for her kindness and relaxes, letting her hands smooth over the clothes covering his back and rubbing away any remnants of pain. Rin continues stroking his back and looking at the ceiling in absentminded thought, but her head lowers quickly upon catching the sound of nearing footsteps, pattering softly and humbly on the hard ground. Rin assumes these footsteps belong to Neru, as Neru never walks as purposefully as the scientists who let their leather, formal shoes hit the ground with resounding clicks to show their authority. Upon looking down at the bars, Rin sees she's correct in her guess as to who approaches their cells. Neru stops between Rin and Miku's cells and taps her blue pen against her clipboard three times. Rin notices another person stands beside Neru.

It's the Mikuo boy from earlier, and his face is still as bandaged as ever though the cloth is no longer as white and clean as yesterday's encounter. His arms are crossed tightly again, still covered by the long, black sleeves of the swallowtail coat, though today he wears a thin, black jacket. Rin wonders why he insists on wearing such black garments as they approach. Mikuo sends a guilty look at Len and Rin and glances ever so quickly at Miku before looking away equally quickly, averting his eyes far to the side to avoid looking at the robots at all.

Today is the first day Neru has visited them since Len returned from the scientist escapade, and Neru smiles at Rin in a reassuring manner. "I told you he'd be safe."

"But they _hurt_ him," Miku shoots back before Rin can summon an intelligent reply. Neru looks apologetically at Miku and lowers her head to gaze at the floor in a gesture of modesty, her long, dirty golden ponytail falling in front of her face.

"I'm sorry," Neru says quickly. "I didn't actually know what they were going to do to him, but I knew he wasn't going to the incinerator room or anything of the sort."

"It's okay," Len sighs, his voice cutting through the air with its melodious yet somewhat alien hum. He's on the bed at this point, as Rin has stopped tending to him, and he gazes at the two scientists before him with unreadable eyes. Rin sees that he's still in some pain and only barely mustering the pain to forgive the two, especially Mikuo—he doesn't know him as well. Neru nods thankfully and Mikuo grins lopsidedly at Len in gratitude—a lopsided smile that's startlingly similar to Miku's, Rin notes. She notices briefly that their names are quite similar, as if a very unimaginative person had named them together. Rin wonders for a split second if Mikuo could be a robot too that was built with Miku, somehow attaining the status of a scientist.

"This is Mikuo," Neru introduces, gesturing towards the teal-haired boy. Rin nods knowingly as she already knows this, and Len nods as well before letting his head fall back onto the pillow and releasing a long, drawn-out sigh. Neru pats Mikuo's back and Rin wonders how well they know each other. Mikuo seems to be an intern like Neru, and Rin thinks they're most likely colleagues or something of the sort.

"Just thought I'd introduce him to you guys," Neru says. "He really, really likes you guys like I do."

"Right," snorts Miku, and Rin is startled by the disgust and sarcasm in her tone. "He likes me _so _much, sometimes he just looks at me and cries. I must be awfully ugly!"

Neru stiffens and Rin sees Mikuo suddenly look away sharply before escaping from the room as fast as possible without breaking out into a run, disappearing behind the set of sliding doors without warning. Neru looks at him as he disappears, then turns back and sighs and runs a hand through her hair. She looks at Miku with saddened eyes.

"Try to be nice to him," Neru says. Her voice is weary again and filled with emotion—and again, Rin can't understand it. "Especially you, Miku."

Neru gathers herself up along with her clipboard and blue pen and then straightens her collar before waving a silent hand for farewells, then hustles outside. Rin hears her calling after the other scientist, her voice desperate. "_Wait, wait, Mikuo, come back. I'm sure she didn't mean it!"_

Rin turns back to Miku, who is hissing and grumbling under her breath. Len sighs and sits up, wrapping his legs around himself.

"Maybe you shouldn't have been so harsh," Len says, his voice slightly nervous for the scientist, which is surprising to Rin. Len is being excruciatingly careful, as he knows Miku is cross when around or exposed to scientists of any shape of form, even Neru, who Rin believed was pretty close to her. She's closer to her than she is to any other scientist, Rin thinks.

"I know, I know," Miku sighs, and Rin is astonished she admits to this. Miku coughs a little, softly, and Rin notes it just might be out of embarrassment. "It's just…I can't stand them. Even him, that Mikuo, the way he just doesn't say anything like he can't relate to us at all and doesn't even try. He can't be all _that_ bad, as Neru seems to like him just fine, but…still. I can't bring myself to really _like_ him."

Rin nods to show her understanding, and Miku falls back on her bed to pull the white sheets over her body. She mumbles something softly.

"I actually _do_ feel kind of bad for making him go away like that. I didn't think he'd react _that_ strongly," Miku says. Her fans are slowing, and Rin can hear them lose their speed. Miku closes her eyes and lets her head relax into the pillow. Her words are slurred. "I think…I'll take a nap now so I don't have to be so embarrassed."

Rin nods though Miku can't see her nod at all. She turns around to face Len and sees him sit up in bed and gesture her over. Rin sighs but figures she should nap as well, because everyone else seems to be doing it, and then slides over to her bed and tosses herself into it, letting the blankets fall around her body. She feels the warmth from Len's body for a while and basks in it. Len's hand slides over to hers to hold it and for once Rin doesn't resist the touch of his hand and takes it. Exhaling softly, she closes her eyes.

Over the next few days Len sings and sings. Rin presumes that it makes him feel better, lifts his spirits, as he seems to do it a lot when he feels down. They mope around in their cells, lulled by the lullaby of the hum of machinery, never doing much more than sharing conversations and sleeping.

In the warm, insulated heat of the afternoon, Rin is watching Len with her tireless eyes as Len examines a piece of paper, written on by a careful hand in deep, saturated blue pen. Sets of five lines are written carefully across the length of the sheet, and stemmed dots rise and fall across them. Len holds the paper in front of his face, his eyebrows furrowed in deep concentration, and his lips move slightly as he mouths something under his breath.

Numerous other papers are strewn around his sitting form, also covered in strokes of blue pen.

"Those are the papers Neru gave you, right?" Rin asks, hugging her knees to her chest as she sits down on the floor. Len, sitting a ways away from her, nods quickly, absorbed in the writing. Rin watches him absentmindedly, her metal fingers rapping loudly against the stone of the ground beside her, bored out of her wits. Miku is moping around as well and they have nothing to say, nothing to share. Len continues staring at the papers and Rin is slightly vexed by how absorbed he is in the markings. Rin slides over and looks over his shoulder at whatever he's so intent on staring at. After a while, realization dawns on Rin and she realizes it's written music, most likely a piece Neru handed to Len out of kindness due to his completely random singing bouts.

Rin reads the title with slight interest. "_Bringing the Rain"_ is the title of the piece, and upon scanning the staves of music, Rin is amazed Neru has the patience to write all this by hand. She begins humming the tune of the first few measures quietly out of boredom, quiet enough so Len can't hear as to not disturb him. Len squirms as her breath tickles his neck and adjusts the papers in his hands.

His eyes move up to look at her and a smile stretches across his face. "Want to sing with me?"

Rin looks at him in surprise, but decides it's a relatively interesting escapade and something to do in the boring hours of the afternoon and nods. Len smiles at her and pats the floor beside him to tell her to sit there. Rin obliges and slides next to him, and Len holds the music between them generously.

Rin begins humming the first measures which aren't accompanied by singing, letting her voice fall on the waltz rhythm with a carefree voice. Len comes in after around three or so measures, humming to match her. She giggles a bit when the sound of their voices buzz, a sure sign of being out of tune to each other before trying again. This time, their voices intertwine in the air and it sounds fine.

When the singing begins, it's not the most beautiful thing Rin has ever heard, that's for sure. They stumble over the more complex rhythms here and there, but they somehow both manage to laugh it off when one of them messes up or they both stumble and trip over the words. Soon they fall into a fit of laughter, and they can't sing the last few strains of the music without bursting into more laughter over their own inability to sing the music properly. Len smiles at her and Rin can't help but fall into laughter again.

After a great deal of moments their laughter finally subsides and Rin falls back onto the concrete floor, her limbs weak, though not in a bad way. Len flops down beside her with enthusiasm and croons into her ear as he lies beside her.

"That was fun," Rin giggles softly. Len looks at her cheerfully. For a while they stay like that, staring at the ceiling in contentment.

* * *

That night, Rin awakens to the sound of incessant tapping that feels like it's resounding in her head. She turns to look questioningly at Len but finds him fast asleep, his mouth slightly agape, and then looks up in confusion.

Miku is tapping on the glass between their cells, her face contorted into one of impatience and desperation. Rin gets up slowly and reluctantly, groaning. What Miku wants she can't fathom.

"_What is it?"_ Rin whispers tiredly. Her eyelids are drooping. From his bed, Len rolls and whistles from the back of his throat in his sleep.

"Come on, Rin, wake up." Miku demands. Her eyes are hard with determination and the dots of red, white, blue, and yellow lights flash from her arms in the constricting dark of the night like the faraway lights of a metropolitan city. "It's up to you to choose whether you're going with me or not, but I'm escaping from here."

Rin instantly freezes. "_What?"_

"I'm serious."

"You're serious?"

Miku nods impatiently, looking at Rin expectantly. "You'll go with me, right?"

Rin looks around and she's not sure if she's ready at all. She glances quickly at Len, who is tossing in his sleep. She briefly wonders if he does all this moving about every night and if so, why she never wakes up. "How about Len?"

"He'll go too, right?" Miku says quickly. "If he's so heavy of a sleeper, you can try carrying him."

Rin's face contorts in disbelief at the suggestion and then shakes her head. "He's not a particularly deep sleeper, nor is he a light one. I'll try waking him up." Rin can't believe she's saying this and going along with Miku's plan, so she hesitates. Miku looks at her expectantly and Rin hustles over to where Len is huffing softly, his breath curling warmly around his peaceful face.

Rin shakes his side and he growls and swipes an arm through the air, causing Rin to back away in alarm. But soon she tries again under the pressuring gaze of Miku, which makes Len groan loudly, snarl, and grab onto her wrist. Rin jerks away in panic.

A jolt of pain shrieks through her body as she feels one or a few wires snap in her wrist under the firm grip of the other robot. She bites her lip to keep herself from crying out in synthesized pain and proceeds to hit Len's face in attempt to wake him up quickly.

It isn't the smartest move she's made in her life, as Len lets out a guttural, purring growl and in an instant his eyelids fly open, his eyes glowing in the pitchy darkness and he pulls her wrist down, causing another jolt of pain to spread across her body and to her toes. She bites down hard on her lip to keep herself from uttering more than a high-pitched squeak of agony, and she feels a slight rupture in her lip at the harsh action.

Upon hearing her voice and seeing her face in the dim light that spreads from his awakened light panels situated on his arms, he instantly calms before realizing he's inflicted damage upon her. Len sits up hastily and grabs onto her, fingers gripping her shoulders.

"Oh my god, Rin," he says, his voice thick with concern. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry. I really am—"

"It's okay," Rin groans as her wrist flops out of his grip and to her side. "Miku wants us to escape," she says gutturally, holding her wrist with her other hand and with tender care. "She wants us to go _now."_

Len's eyes widen slightly but he nods quickly, sliding out from under the sheets and out of bed. Rin wonders how he manages to follow Miku's instructions so unquestioningly and not even wonder why they're attempting escape at such an ungodly and seemingly _random_ time as she holds her wrist tenderly and watches him prepare.

"Let's go," Miku says.


	4. Chapter 4

_more old stuff, i decided to skim it over (i haven't been rereading these chapters before i've uploaded them...HAHAHA really bad choice in terms of spellchecking and grammar, but hey, i've had enough of this story. writing a 50,000 word novel in a month is taxing. besides, i don't want to look at my writing when i was 13) so that i could actually have something to say. this chapter ended up being a boring one though so i just really really skimmed_

_UM so i apologize for the awkward sentence syntax/bad sentence fluency/repetitions of words, i was really obsessed with word count. nothing terribly exciting happens here, sorry sadadkfkj...um this chapter was mostly filler and i'm sorrryyy_

* * *

.Chapter4

_Tap, tap, tap, tap._

The sound of their metal feet pattering on the floor outside their cage is near-silent but noticeable to them, frighteningly loud to their nervous and careful bodies as they run softly through the halls. Len is rolling near-silently, and the only noise that comes from him is the soft buzz of the machinery working within and the sound of whooshing air as his feet roll and move the air between their wheels.

"Let's hurry," Miku whispers again, her voice desperately careful. Len flexes his fingers nervously, having used them to rupture the locks of the cells after much straining. Luckily, without the scientists around, it was far easier for him to cut through the hard metal of the lock without the constant fear of scientists coming around to capture them and punish them.

"We're lucky," Miku adds softly. "I'm surprised they didn't think about the damage a bodyguard robot could cause to the facility of the cell and escaping and all that.

"If we get caught, they _will _be sure to make sure everything is locked tightly," Rin grimaces in reply. Len nods hastily in agreement.

"Yeah, I kn—get down!"

Miku near-belly flops into the nearest room, which is, luckily, unlocked. Len follows quickly, grabbing Rin by the arm and helping her inside. With hasty carefulness, Miku closes the door behind them but raises her eyes nervously to the small, square window fitted into the top of the door. Rin and Len follow suit, barely peeking the top of their heads over so they can see what has frightened Miku so.

Outside there is a beam of dim light that moves across the walls, the floor, into their eyes and back. A flashlight.

"Guards!" Miku whispers warningly.

Rin watches fearfully as the light continues groping the walls, and eventually the guards come into view.

There are two of them, both wearing cloaking material that make it hard to see their faces. They share a few words before they continue going on, down the hall. Miku's eyes are filled with worry and Rin knows she's wondering if the guards are heading to the cell room and will see the empty cells where they used to be. After they pass and moments tick by, the seconds resounding loudly in Rin's ears, Miku manages to open the door and gesture them to go outside. All three of them slip out silently, looking around in paranoia.

It's a big mistake.

A flashlight shines into their eyes almost immediately, almost blinding them. They're face to face with one of the cloaked guards who—who also happens to be holding a clipboard and a blue pen to her chest. Rin's heart unclenches for a relieved second. She knows who it is, at least.

"What're you guys doing out here?" Neru asks.

Miku stares at Neru almost accusingly. "You're not going to try to stop us, are you?"

Neru looks at them and appears to think, nodding slowly in contemplation. "No, I don't think I will. I might just help you guys escape, if that's what you really want."

Miku beams suddenly and Rin is surprised at how large her smile is on her delicate-looking face. "Thanks, Neru. You're the best."

Rin almost dares to ask _why_ Neru, a scientist, daughter of the factory owner, would help them, but she holds her tongue. She doesn't want to sway her mind.

"What are you doing up and out of bed?" Len asks questioningly to Neru and Neru scratches her head sheepishly.

"Mikuo and I wanted to check on you guys, but found you guys gone from your cells." Neru explains. "Mikuo headed off in another direction. When we found you gone, he decided to get back into bed. I decided to go find you guys before you got yourself in too much trouble."

Miku laughs weakly and nods slowly, not denying the truth of Neru's words. Rin's heart still hammers in her chest from the frightening, near-death encounter, and she feels Len gently wrap his fingers around her injured wrist and he lifts it up despite how the touch sends prickles of pain up her arm. She cringes.

"Neru," Len asks. "Can you fix Rin's wrist? I accidentally…"

He looks at the ground in some shame. Neru examines the wrist and nods contemplatively before nodding assuredly.

"Looks just like some snapped wires, probably some not very necessary ones," Neru says. "Nevertheless, I should fix it. Do you want me to do it right now?"

"…Sure," Rin decides, as the pain is beginning to flop around the whole of her arm. Neru smiles a little and fumbles through some pockets of her coat. She finds a screwdriver, to Rin's interest.

"Lift up your chin a bit, would you?" Neru says, and Rin obliges. Neru gently slides the screwdriver into a small screw on her neck and a small metal panel slides open like a door.

An interesting set of buttons and a miniscule screen are behind the panel and Neru begins hitting some of the small, white buttons.

"I'm going to turn off the nerve simulators on your arm," Neru says. "I'm doing that so it won't hurt when I cut into your skin to fix the wires, okay?"

Rin nods reluctantly, almost afraid to have her arm cut, and suddenly Neru hits a button and she is unable feel her arm. It's a bit strange, but it's almost relieving as the pain cuts off. Neru nods quickly, then takes out a small scalpel and cuts a slit vertically across her wrist. With careful hands, she edges the slit synthesized skin open and Rin grimaces and looks away, not liking the look of her skin cut open so cleanly. Neru begins poking around inside with a set of pliers before pulling out some green tape and mending the broken wires.

"That should do it," Neru says, then takes out some cream that pulls the slit skin together almost seamlessly. "Actually, I'm going to try to get your nerve simulators _not_ to react negatively at the cut skin and cause pain. It might take a while to convince it, though."

Neru laughs a little and returns to the small panel on Rin's neck and clicks away at buttons, mumbling to herself for a while. Rin can't understand a single thing Neru is doing, but it's obviously affecting her as her brain occasionally clouds over or her limbs have spasms.

After a while, Rin's arm begins throbbing with life again and she can feel. Rin flexes her arm and fingers carefully—it doesn't hurt that much, though there's still a careful, weird throbbing at her wrist where Neru has reconnected her wires and cut and resealed her skin. Neru pushes back the panel against Rin's neck and screws the screw back in tightly.

"Well, now what?" Neru says. "I'm afraid I can't give you guys the quickest way out—they laboratory is huge, and I've only been assigned to a small part of it. I only know the map of my specific parts, and I'm not sure of how you guys can escape." Neru laughs sheepishly. "Most of the scientists just sleep in the dorms here.

"But this place is _huge," _Neru adds, shrugging. She bites her lower lip in thought. "There's the laboratory town out there," Neru points in a general direction and shrugs. "I suppose we could hide you guys somewhere there."

"Okay," Miku says amiably, though her voice is still shaking from the startling encounter. Neru gestures for them to follow as she begins walking down the hall. Rin, Miku, and Len all follow in a single-file line, Miku in the front, Rin in the middle, and Len in the back.

For a while they take some strange turns here and there, walking about in a dizzying pattern. Rin struggles to remember the way back and tries to memorize each turn and twist, but her mind is soon overwhelmed and she gives up.

For a while they continue walking in inconspicuous silence before at last Neru makes her way to a large set of double doors, locked tightly. Neru fumbles in her pocket and finds a small card with a black bar across its bottom and proceeds to swipe it across a small machine by the huge gates. The yellow light flashing on the contraption blinks for a while before turning a clear green, and Neru pockets the card and pushes them open.

They're met with a large clearing, leading to a well-furnished but empty town square. The floor is tiled with bricks that move in concentric circles pushed together tightly to form a pattern—a flower-like design colored into the floor by the differentiation between the white and red bricks. Above them, a domed, fake sky hovers, speckles of laser-on stars glimmering from it. Rin can tell that it's a fake from a nearby metal wall on the border of the square, going high up until sloping into the top of the dome.

Miku steps forward and examines the area. Many different quaint, small houses as well as larger businesses line streets that radiate out from the central square they stand in. Everything is not very industrialized compared to the rest of the modern world—the houses made from cut brick and tiles and wood, clean and orderly. Rin peeks down winding roads and alleys with interest. Everything is lighted softly with a pastel-like, navy blue by the blanketing light emanating from dim street lamps and the fake stars and moon above.

"There's a town in the laboratory?" Miku asks, her voice soft but incredulous. Neru nods.

"Since the scientists don't really go home, their families sometimes live here and they buy stuff and materials in the shops around here," Neru says and then shakes her head dismissively. "Anyway, I've got to get you guys to Mikuo's to spend the night. He doesn't really qualify as a scientist—he's an orphan who lives in the town—and hopefully he'll let you stay in his house. It's not the biggest thing ever, but it'll do. Just don't get caught!"

Neru jogs through the silent streets, her feet barely a whisper over the roughness of the brick. The three robots follow as quickly as possible and almost hit Neru when she stops abruptly at a door fitted into a wall on a thin alley. There's a small overhanging over the door, as if to keep out any nonexistent rain that might fall from the fake sky. She steps onto the small, raised platform in front of the door and knocks three loud, hard knocks.

To Rin's surprise, Mikuo opens the door rather quickly, still fitted into those stuffy, formal, _black_ clothes. Neru smiles knowingly.

"I knew you weren't asleep yet," Neru laughs. Mikuo laughs a little, almost awkwardly, shrugs, and then eyes the robots.

"What are they doing here?" Mikuo asks questioningly, also knowing to keep his voice level and low in the silence of the night. Neru looks at them and shrugs at Mikuo.

"They decided it was time to escape. They were sick of the scientists," Neru explains quickly and then peeks past Mikuo into the small house. "Can we come in? It'll be safer inside."

"Oh, yeah," Mikuo says and then steps inside to give them room to get in. All four of them clamber inside almost frantically and Len, the last one, closes the door softly behind him. Mikuo reaches over and locks it tightly with a touch of his finger against a small pad.

"Um," Neru says and bites her lip at the problem of addressing her question. In the meanwhile, Rin looks around at the cozy but somewhat small house.

To the right is a table, surrounded by six chairs, though most of them look unused. A small counter is behind the table, covered with strange but twisted mementos. Looking forward, there's a long hall flanked with four doors. The hall ends with another door, which is blocked off by some large boxes that appear to be deliberately placed before it.

"Miku, Rin, and Len are looking for a place to stay," Neru begins. Mikuo cocks an eyebrow at her and Rin knows he gets her gist.

"You want me to keep them?" Mikuo sighs and then smiles weakly at them. "Well, okay, but I've only got two bedrooms rather than my own, and there are three of you." He gazes at them awkwardly, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "Hopefully one of you doesn't mind sleeping on the floor or something…?"

Neru shrugs it off as if it isn't a pressing issue. "Rin and Len usually sleep together, or basically do with their beds right next to each other. They can share a bed, right?"

Len glances awkwardly at Rin, and Rin is about to protest when she realizes doing so might make her be a nuisance towards Mikuo. She doesn't know him too well, so she closes her mouth. Len growls softly to show how awkward he feels about it, but no one heeds his embarrassment.

"Well then," Mikuo says carefully. "I'll show you guys your rooms, and then you can do whatever until you feel like sleeping."

Mikuo gestures for them to follow and they walk down the hall until he reaches the first door. Mikuo places a hand on the brass doorknob and opens the wooden door. Inside is a simple arrangement, customized only by a bed, a nightstand, and a small desk with a chair leaning against the wall. The first thing Rin notices on the desk is a small vase of green onions not unlike the ones Miku had. The only other thing on the table is a cup filled with pencils and a carelessly thrown aside handkerchief that hangs off the side of the table.

"It's not much," Mikuo says humbly. "But you can have this room, Miku."

"Thanks," Miku says stiffly, and Rin can tell she's still embarrassed from the incident days earlier. Mikuo shows no sign of remembering the awkward incident as he steps out again and shuffles a few feet down the hall before he reaches another door, which he proceeds to open.

This room is slightly bigger but equally skimpy—above a similar desk is a small cabinet with a glass door. There's nothing inside. Another bed is positioned in the corner of the room, a small window draped and covered by silken, laced curtains over it.

"Um, you can do whatever you want now," Mikuo says before attempting to suppress a yawn. A quick glance to the clock on the table reveals it to be 2:00 AM, and Mikuo looks at them wearily. "I'll probably go to bed soon, okay?"

Neru nods for a second, then nods again with more conviction. "Well then guys, I'll be going. I won't be able to help you guys out most of the time—if I disappear for periods at a time people might get suspicious. But good luck anyway!"

With that, Neru quickly heads outside and disappears, closing the door and locking it behind her. Rin looks at the closed door before turning back to Miku and Len. Mikuo shrugs and waves goodnight before retreating to his room.

"What'll we do now?" Miku asks after a lengthy silence. Rin shrugs and Len touches the soft strands that cover the carpet beneath him with his curious fingers as he looks expectantly at Miku. Miku sighs and shrugs.

"We could sleep," Miku says. Rin yawns—the suggestion is strangely appealing, but Len shrugs and shakes his head. His eyes are alert and seem wide awake from the action. Rin shrugs halfheartedly and rubs the budding tears at her eyes.

"Well, guys," she says, her arm flopping to her side. "I'm going to bed now; I hope you guys don't mind."

"Do whatever," Miku says faintly and stands to examine the twisted objects on the counter near the table. Rin toddles off, suddenly very sleepy, and then flops into the bed and falls into sleep almost instantly.

* * *

It's bright and early the next morning when Mikuo wakes them up.

The fake sun shines brightly, intrusively, from the window onto on Rin's eyes as they open slowly. Len is sitting beside her, his hair slightly ruffled.

"You're awake," Len says, smiling. Rin sits up quickly, the white sheets draped around her legs protectively. The sun is burning, warm, on the side of her face near the window. The thin laced curtains are closed, but the synthesized sun still makes its way through.

She glances quickly at the clock—it's only 6:00 AM. Sleeping only four hours isn't something she's particularly accustomed to, especially after sleeping nearly all day in the cells. She assumes Len stayed up even later than her and can't imagine how sleepy he must be. However, he looks wide awake, and he looks at her expectantly.

"It's time to go," Len alerts, turning his head and smiling at her. "We want to head out as quickly as possible before many scientists are in the streets."

Rin yawns and nods slowly before sliding out of bed. She stretches and yawns again before rubbing her eyes in attempt to get herself to be more energetic and awake. Despite her efforts, she's still somewhat lethargic. Len gets off the bed quickly and helps her stand up with an overly careful hand (he seems rather unhappy about the incident last night). Rin attempts to smooth her rumpled clothes as well as she can before stepping outside with Len.

Miku is waiting impatiently, tapping her booted foot on the floor, and Rin can't help but wonder how she and Len can possibly be so awake with so little sleep. She notices that Miku is wearing a heavy sweater to hide the metal appendages attached to her back and her metallic arms. Instead of a trademark skirt, she wears long, unrevealing jeans.

"Let's go," Miku says. She holds up two sweaters and hands one to Len and one to Rin. Rin watches Len's metal arms on his back fold up neatly to a compact pile as he takes the jacket and slips it on. Where his metal appendages are there's a lump on his back that bulges out of the sweater unnaturally, but Rin hopes it won't be too noticeable in the softer light of the morning. She slips her own on and folds the metal against her back. The lump in her sweater isn't as noticeable as the one in Len's, but still strange.

"And here's some pairs of jeans," Miku says, handing over two pairs as well. "Don't bother to change what you have underneath, just pull them on."

Rin nods awkwardly, feeling cramped and squished by the muffling jacket as she sits down to pull on the rough, blue pants. Len pulls them on as well and Miku smoothes his hair over his red eye and the metal that surrounds it.

"We need to look as normal as possible," Miku says. "Putting that hair there might feel uncomfortable, but it will have to do."

As they walk into the main compartment of the tiny house where the dining table and the small kitchen is, Rin sees Mikuo sitting on one of the chairs on the table of the six. It's the only one that looks worn out of all of them, the armrests dirtied and the wood whitened from its rusty-red gloss at the edges. He turns to them quickly upon hearing them enter the room.

For the first time, Rin sees him wearing something other than the darkly colored swallowtail coat. He wears much less formal-looking clothes—a black t-shirt and long black pants. It's still black, always black, but he actually appears more normal. Rin notices his arms are bandaged by tight, white bandages and the other bandage on his face is new.

"Going already?" Mikuo says, smiling slightly. "Well, you might as well take some stuff."

He pushes back the chair and stands, reaching over to another chair to grab a white backpack. It appears to be full, bulging at some ends. He hands it to Len.

"Just put that on," Mikuo tells him. "You have the most extra appendages on your back, so maybe if you wear a backpack it'll help cover up the strange mound." Len takes it gratefully and slides his arms through the holes until it rests on his back, despite being slightly lopsided and raised on one side by the lumps. Mikuo backs away and smiles reassuringly.

"Miku," Mikuo says and his voice is surprisingly affectionate. "Here's something for good luck."

He hands her a leek, fresh and young, and Miku takes it with surprise and some curiosity.

"Thanks," Miku says awkwardly before turning to the other robots. "I suppose we should go now, right?"

"Yup," Rin says. Mikuo waves a goodbye and Miku nods gratefully at him before swinging the door wide and walking into the sunlight.

Upon taking to the streets, the soft wind gently blows at Rin's face and tosses strands of her blonde hair into the air. Rin presumes the wind is artificially made and comes from some sort of ventilation, but it's somehow still comforting. Miku is holding onto the leek with a tight hand as they begin edging through the alley lit by dying street lamps fixed into the walls surrounding the thin street claustrophobically. Len bounds quickly, keeping a few feet ahead of the other two, and Rin wonders if he's meant to have so much energy because of the type of robot he is. They make their way through the backstreets as quickly as possible.

"Where are we going?" Rin asks. Miku glances at Rin as they jog quietly.

"Len and I sort of looked around at the streets at night," Miku says quickly. The wind gently lifts her heavy ponytails slightly. "We found a quick route to a secluded place that seems hidden, but if it isn't we'll find a different place. We can hide there until we figure out some sort of plan."

Rin nods and Miku looks forward again. They take some sharp turns until at last Len stops a few feet in front of them, allowing time for them to catch up and stand by his side. Before them is a wall of houses. There is a tiny slit between two houses, barely big enough to fit a sparrow. Rin looks at it in confusion as Len steps onto a small sill filled with dirt near the ground. He climbs up and stands on it precariously for a few seconds before gripping a pipe that cuts through the gap and across the walls of the houses, attached to them, and hangs there before reaching the overhang of the roof and grabbing onto that.

He hauls himself onto the roof and sits on the flat surface for a while before glancing down at the robots below. "You guys come up too!"

Miku nods quickly and follows with the same action, and Rin watches with apprehension. It looks like a dangerous maneuver, but Miku and Len look down at her expectantly and she sighs before hopping onto the dirt sill and then reaching up for the pipe. As she reaches for the overhang, her hand slips.

Luckily, Len's hand quickly finds its way to her arm and grabs it quickly and hauls her back up. Rin looks at him gratefully as she pants from adrenaline on the roof. Meanwhile, Miku points downwards, in the opposite direction of the alley. Rin looks and discovers there's a small area, a square, between four houses, completely unoccupied. Rin wonders what kind of architect would make such a meaningless space behind houses, completely surrounded by walls. Luckily, there are crates leading down like stairs from the roof to the clearing, as Rin doesn't want to do any more acrobatics. Len walks down the makeshift stairs carefully and she follows, Miku behind her.

"We put these crates here," Miku says. "To make it easier, you know? Hopefully the garbage collectors won't notice the missing crates we took from the dump."

Rin nods gratefully as they descend onto the brick floor. Len slumps into a sitting position on the ground and Rin does the same.

"Let's see what's in that backpack Mikuo gave us," Miku says. Len slips off the white bag and lays it on the floor between the three of them.

Rin reaches over, unzips the top, and begins taking out the materials within. There's a folded up blanket, warm and fleecy, and three small pillows. Among the things Rin finds is also some of the skin ointment, seemingly the same as the kind that Neru gave to her wrist to fix it and even a small gun and a long sword.

Upon examining the sword, Rin notices childish but faint handwriting emblazoned into the hilt with a red marker and a small leek keychain hanging from its end. Some of it is gnarled and strange, and Miku takes the sword into her hand, weighing it.

"It's a very nice sword," Miku says, looking down its blade with interest. With confused curiosity, she looks at the hilt. "I wonder who wrote that? It looks so old."

Rin shrugs, as she doesn't know either. Miku puts the sword to the side gently before rummaging through the other contents of the bag. Rin doesn't recognize some of the things in there, and once they're done looking through Miku looks up abruptly.

"I wonder if there's a map of the laboratory _somewhere_," Miku says, pulling at her hair in thought. Rin watches the fake sun—it's somehow intriguing, how it manages to shine light despite being a fake projection. After a while, Miku shakes her head and stands, pulling the backpack over Len's shoulders.

"We should just try to get out of this town," Miku says. "Like, right _now._ The scientists will realize we're gone in no time and try to find us…Well, let's just say we should get a head start. We should just constantly move around, to throw them off."

Rin nods in agreement—being caught is the last thing she wants to happen. They bound back up the crate stairs and as they leave Rin looks back at the now abandoned spot and stares at the empty ground before climbing over the roof.

Upon landing on the streets below, Rin glances at the sun again and notes its position in the sky—it's higher than when she last looked. As if mirroring her thoughts, Len glances up at the sun as well before quickly lowering his eyes.

"Let's hurry," Len says softly, his voice barely a whisper over the gentle wind, so only Rin and Miku can hear. "It's getting a little late—just a little bit."

Miku nods quickly in agreement, she too glancing up at the projected sun with distant worry dancing in her eyes like the glimmering of will-o-wisps over the dark waters of a swamp—barely there, but there. They run through the streets, almost aimlessly, the wind streaming through their hair and flattening their clothes.

For a moment, the feeling of being free hits Rin for a second—the excitement of being on the run and the feeling of being able to move freely and across the hard pavement like a bird in the sky. Almost as quickly, she feels the foreboding of being a fugitive and she knows the feeling of freedom won't last long.

For what seems like forever, they soar through the streets. Occasionally they see passerby and slow down, purposely attempting to conceal their unnatural backs, and luckily no one notices, though some do give their strange appearance odd looks. Len constantly smoothes down his hair despite the wind that attempts to throw it up and reveal the gleam of hard metal spliced onto his otherwise organic-looking face.

For a while they move aimlessly, until Miku seems to tire and slows down to a weary trot. Rin also feels the exhaustion from running around almost randomly through the streets and slows down to match Miku's pace. Eventually Len notices their fatigue and slows down as well.

"This is so _pointless,_" Miku sighs, her voice filled with exhaustion and a touch of frustration. "I wish we knew the way out of here."

"Maybe we should just ask for instructions," Len suggests. "I mean…people might get suspicious, but it's probably going to get us farther than just running around with no motives."

"You have a point there," Miku grumbles. "The next time we see someone, let's just ask."

For a while they walk around aimlessly some more before they stumble upon someone. Luckily, the first person they see is just a lady in common clothing. She doesn't appear to be a scientist, and as Len and Miku seem to hesitate Rin manages to find her voice.

"Um, excuse me?" Rin musters the most polite voice she can manage, and the lady barely looks up as she tinkers with a contraption in her hands.

"Hmm?" the lady asks. She still doesn't look up and Rin is even grateful for it because she knows she won't see their strangeness if she's so absorbed in her piece of technology. Rin clears her throat awkwardly.

"We're kind of _really _ignorant," Rin titters nervously. "Could you tell us the nearest exit out of this town?"

The woman still doesn't look up as she replies to Rin's question. "Oh dear," the woman says, her fingers tapping and hammering onto the buttons on the rectangular piece. "There are many exits, all to the other wings of the laboratory. Why would little town girls and boys like you want to head to the laboratories?"

Rin hesitates at the question, her mind racing to think of an answer. Luckily for her, the woman raises a hand off her contraption and waves it dismissively at her.

"Never mind, never mind," the woman says hastily, waving her hand with manicured, blood-red nails in front of Rin's face. The beaded bracelets on her wrist jangle as she does so. "That might have been a personal question, I understand, dear. Just tell me where you intend to go and I can help you find it. Don't fret."

Rin is glad for the lady's ignorance and her kindness to them, though she thinks they're simply "little town girls and boys" and has no idea who they really are. Rin turns to Miku and Len for help and Miku steps forward quickly.

"Um, could you please point us to where the development wing is?" Miku says, and the woman smiles warmly but continues tapping, tapping, never stopping. Rin wonders how the contraption can intrigue her so.

"Ah, yes," the woman says. "Are you children looking for jobs there? Development really is the hardest kind you can get into. They make lots and lots of complex robots with their complex, complex equations and technology, but I'm thankful for it." The woman continues, both talking and clicking away. "The development wing is really quite near. Just head down this road for a while and turn right on the first fork. You should find some big double doors, and that will be all,"

"Thanks," Rin says quickly, wanting to get away as quickly as possible to keep the lady from noticing their inherent robotic-ness. Upon glancing at Len and Miku's faces, she sees they share her sentiment. "Thank you very much!"

And with that, they're gone, sweeping away with the wind. The woman shrugs and continues walking forward and never thinks of the little town boys and girls again until the scientists reveal that there are robots missing—a blonde girl, a green-haired girl, and a blonde boy—the exact hair colors she had seen on the "little town girls and boys" in her peripheral vision.

They hurry along the streets silently, wind streaming around them and parting into dragonish streams. At the first fork Len turns right with a curt movement and Miku and Rin follow behind as they move along in a triangle formation.

Upon reaching the big double doors, Rin is astounded by how cold and foreboding they look in comparison to the petit, brick town. Written across the stainless steel is "_DEVELOPMENT LABS"_ in dangerous white paint, fading and peeling at the edges. Rin pushes against the cold metal and finds it not only icy but locked tightly. Len pushes against it as well and nothing happens.

"Stupid scientists," Miku mumbles as she fumbles in her pockets, searching for something Rin isn't aware of. At last Miku pulls out a card, worn and crackled on the black strips across its top and bottom. Miku slides it into the machine by the door and waits for a long, tense while.

"Please let it work, please let it work," Miku whispers under her breath as she holds the thin white thing in her hand, and Rin cranes her neck to see what's on the card.

Printed onto it is a small, colorful picture of Miku, her face all smiles, and words in printed font too small for Rin to read are to the right of the cute photograph. When Rin looks up finally after giving up on reading the text, she sees the machine flash a reassuring green and Miku grin in delight. She pushes the doors open.

What lies beyond seems like darkness, pure, unwavering darkness, and all three of them falter at the foreboding beyond.

Rin knows what Miku will say, what she always says, so she says it for her.

"Let's go," she says.


	5. Chapter 5

_arrrrgggh sorry i haven't updated in a long time because i've been distracted with other stuff/art endeavors. i tried to read this over but then i got too embarrassed and it's embarrassing my grammar 2 years ago is just UGHHHHHH explodes explodes explodes in embarrassment_

_i think this is the chapter where the romance starts. blech. THERE ARE SO MANY GRAMMAR MISTAKES I'M SO SORRY_

_also would any of you want me to upload my NaNoWriMo from one year ago (2010). just out of curiousity. i'll probably be embarrassed about that one too. in case you forgot what nanowrimo was already it's when you write 50,000 words in november. and this one is my nanowrimo from 2009. sobs._

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.Chapter5

They bound through the darkness of the laboratory, the metal walls once again flanking them like the sides of a gray, frightening animal, heaving and rumbling in the distorted darkness. Rin wonders why this wing of the laboratory is so dark, so terrible, even in comparison to their original location where their cells were.

There is barely any lighting in the halls, the only flickers of luminescence the occasional, dim lamp fixated into the walls, parallel to each other every few yards. Miku seems to know the area well, to Rin's surprise. She appears to know it better than where they had been kept, and she dips through the halls with purpose. Rin can feel the meaning in her stride, the feeling of having a motive, so she follows Miku unquestioningly. Len seems to shrink to nothing in the claustrophobic, choking darkness, almost completely disappearing save his red, glowing eye.

"It's really dark," Len growls and almost betrays the nervousness in his voice. As he fumbles along lethargically in the thick, churning waves of caliginous air, suddenly his ponytail raises and alights. Rin stares in awe not only because she's never seen it light up before, but also because it looks almost comical. The glowing panels on Len's arms and legs also come to life, putting soft golden and pale green light upon their forms and edging them with it.

"Well, that helps me see a little better," Miku mumbles, shuffling through the halls and looking around. "My god, I don't remember this place as well as I used to."

Len wraps his hands around his lit ponytail with slight embarrassment as Rin looks at it in awed amusement, but she looks away quickly, not wanting to embarrass him anymore. The dark halls are mostly deserted, though they do pass by rooms where light flitters out, and when Rin peeks inside from the glass windows fixed on the doors she sees strange scientists doing strange things, bent over frightening looking severed human body parts and skeleton-like frames. Once she even passes by a room where a scientist is examining the skeleton (or a model of one) of a dog-like creature, but far burlier with huge, unnatural teeth as sharp as knives.

"These are the development labs. No one really hangs out in the halls because they're always busy, and it scared me when I was younger," Miku says, laughing a little, almost awkwardly. "It was always so dark and unlit, and the less disciplined and younger scientists would tell me scary stories about failed robots that were half people, half robot."

"Like Kaito and Meiko," Rin says. "That's probably where they got that idea."

"Yeah. What a mean twist," Miku says. "Anyhow, I learned to get used to the dim lighting of the place after they locked me here for a while because they had nowhere else to keep me. I wandered the halls until I memorized almost every turn. As you can see now, I've kind of forgotten a bit."

"Nowhere to keep you?" Rin asks faintly. "How about the cells?"

"When they made me, the whole wing with all the cell rooms wasn't constructed yet. That only came later." Miku tells her. Rin is surprised by this and wonders briefly just how long Miku's been around but decides only to ask later if at all (or maybe, she thinks, she should ask Neru). Miku shrugs and dances down another twist and turn.

"I'm pretty sure there's one door to the outside of the development wing that I always wondered about when I was younger," Miku says. "I recall trying to open it and failing. Maybe we can bust it down now."

They walk in silence for another while, Len's ponytail illuminating the path. After many more twist and turns, the soft golden light from Len's ponytail shines a dim circle on a room with no lights at all, cold and foreboding and metal in the darkness. Rin is afraid—the darkness is scary and pitch-black, completely opaque, but the lights from Len's ponytail continue shining dim light over the room, barely managing to fight off the cackling, burly blackness. Miku stumbles over to a door, metal and cold, with peeling white paint across it. "EXIT" is written on it, just above the twisting handle. Miku tries it and it's locked.

"Okay, Len," Miku says, sighing. "Could you break the hinges to this door so we can open it? I've always wondered what's beyond it, and this is my chance to know and also for us to actually get somewhere and escape."

Len nods and steps forward slowly, obviously still shaken up by the clawing darkness. Rin flanks him closely—he's painfully warm in the icy-cold temperature of the room and halls of the development wing. His warmth almost burns in contrast, feverishly hot. Len presses his left hand to the metal hinge of the door and, with a flick, his long, spindly spider-leg fingers form a drill, sharp and ridged. He begins drilling through the metal.

Rin cringes from the noise and she sees Miku glance around in paranoia to see if anyone has heard. The drill scraping and cutting through metal is loud and rumbles like the roaring of waves. Rin silently urges him with her eyes to work faster and Len presses harder against the metal.

Rin's heart nearly stops when she hears loud, purposeful footsteps approaching, accompanied by the scraping of metal against metal and metal clanking on metal.

"Hurry," Miku urges, and Len manages to cut through the first hinge before moving quickly onto the other one, his drill arm whirring with desperate action. Rin glances down the hall where the footsteps are approaching.

"What _is_ that?" a mature, yet not-completely-womanly voice calls out, sounding annoyed and tired. "I've got a feeling this might be the escaped robots that Mr. Arai told me about."

"Hurry," Miku repeats, and Len growls to signify he's hurrying as much as he can. The footsteps get closer, closer. Sweat breaks out on Rin's forehead, cold against her clammy skin.

At that moment there's an unearthly growl as suddenly something bursts out of nowhere, sleek golden fur gleaming in the dim light from Len's hair.

The voice comes back again, this time raised to a high-pitched yell. "Get them, Hiro!"

The creature leaps and Miku is knocked to the ground, her eyes gleaming with annoyance but also underlying fear.

Rin hustles over, and though she knows she's far from a bodyguard robot, she begins to attempt to claw the creature from Miku's chest. It appears to be a normal dog, nothing like the one Len killed weeks earlier, but its intent seems to be equally or more savage as it begins to attempt to rip at Miku's clothes.

"Rin!" Len says and his voice is panicked and sharp with desperation. "You try to tear this hinge off—I've got it halfway done. I'll help Miku!"

Rin nods wordlessly, and as she hustles over to the door, she sees the owner of the voice come into view. It's a girl who looks barely twenty, her bright green hair cropped short and falling around her face in soft-looking strands. She glances at them and sees the dangerous appendages fly out from Len's back, ripping a hole into the red fabric of the sweater as his third hand digs into the soft pelt of the savage dog.

The dog yelps and snarls, leaping off Miku to attack Len. Rin quickly turns to concentrate on the hinge and begins to twist and shake the hinge, attempting to free the half-ripped metal. It begins to come loose, the rounded nails beginning to come undone.

After a few moments that feel like forever, the final nail is almost out. Rin can't get the sound of savage growling and roaring behind her out of her head as Len and the dog fight. What scares her most is that she can't tell the difference between the snarls and hatred of the dog and Len. She knows Len has the intent to kill, his muscles instinctively moving and only wanting to rip flesh to shreds in the fire of battle.

At last, the nail clatters out and the door falls out of its place, revealing light beyond. Miku looks up desperately and bolts for the door.

"Len!" Rin calls out, trying to raise her voice over the din of the dog and Len. The dog is indeed far more savage than the one they had seen before—it appears to be putting up a decent fight, inflicting painful looking wounds on Len's skin and ripping his clothes. Likewise, wounds are scattered across the dog's pelt and Rin notices no blood wells up from the punctures in its skin.

"It's time to go! Just leave the dog!" Rin screams, but Len doesn't seem to hear her and Rin is afraid to approach him. Meanwhile, the female scientist moves closer. Miku is long gone.

At last, Rin cringes and lunges at Len, grabbing him by the collar. Len screams as Rin attempts to drag him off, but Rin dares to put her face close to his ear and whisper soothingly—though desperately— into it. Len begins to calm and his body grows limp, allowing Rin to drag him off slowly. After a few feet Len realizes what they have to do and grabs Rin, who's tired beyond what she can believe and her fingers sore from prying the hinge away from the door. He hauls her up and she clings to his ripped shirt desperately as he bolts out the open door and _into the light._

They seem to move for forever, and Rin can't remember when Len first started walking instead of stumbling, running. Her eyes are closed peacefully and she doesn't want to look around. Her eyelids glow yellow from what she can see with her eyes closed, signifying light outside.

Len continues holding her, and Rin senses Miku is nowhere near their proximity. She doesn't hear Miku's labored breathing or her soft pattering footsteps.

At last, Len speaks, groaning softly. "Rin, I'm so tired. I'm sorry."

"No, I should be sorry," Rin mutters softly, her mouth only moving slightly to speak. She allows Len to set her down on the ground—it is soft and powdery, like dirt, and her eyes open instinctively to stare at her surroundings from where she's lying on the floor. Besides her, she feels Len slide down into a lying position as well.

The ceiling is a comforting yellow, warm, orange lights shining down from lights fixated in the plaster. Large, tropical trees and vegetation bow and form hammocks, reaching high to the ceiling in deep, forest green waves. The humid air touches Rin's face, warm and sticky on her skin.

"Where are we?" Len mumbles. Rin turns her head to look at him and finds him grimy—dirt and pitch are smeared on his face in nasty black smudges, and open wounds cover his arms, black metal shining gruesomely from within. Rin cringes and then groans and sits up.

"You're dirty," she says as gently as possibly. She takes off her sweater, revealing her original clothes below and the cleaning materials attached to her back. She takes a towel out from the container attached to her waist and gently scrubs his face. Len mumbles and sighs at the wet coldness of the towel on his skin. Rin imagines it must be colder than usual from the warmness around them. She dips the towel in a canteen of warm water to the right of the basket on her waist before swiping his face again, rubbing away the stains on his soft skin.

When she finishes doing that, Len's eyes open and stare unwaveringly at her as she pulls the backpack off his back. It's slightly rumpled, torn a little in the corners and the soft covering on the straps are ripped, but otherwise Rin finds it in moderate condition.

She rummages through it and pulls out the skin ointment and begins to seal his wounds. Some are too big and the ointment flops and fails to work, but that only happens on the wounds she can't pinch together again. Len sighs at the softness of the cream and Rin laughs softly—though it comes out like a hacking cough—at the aspect of his happiness as he moves closer to her in delight. She imagines it feels good after having to endure the pain from all of the assorted wounds _and _carry her around to throw off the scientist and the dog.

She wraps up his larger wounds with wet towels as best as she can and pulls them tightly together with a string. She can't help the tears and rips in his clothes and decides to leave them alone as she begins stroking his hair and combing her fingers through it to free any pitch or dirt.

"Rin," Len asks at last after she continues to comb at his hair for a while. "Where are we?"

"I have no idea," Rin replies, surprisingly content with this conclusion. There doesn't appear to be any scientists around and the warmth of the humid air soothes her. "There doesn't appear to be anyone around, and it's quite pretty here."

Len nods and then prods at the next, somewhat more pressing question. "Where's Miku?"

"I have no idea for that question either," Rin says, and at this she's not so content. "She ran off and I have no idea where she headed to."

Len nods thoughtfully at this, and they sit around for a while until Len feels strong enough to stand again. He stumbles up, tripping a little, and Rin helps him up. She's not as tired because he carried her most of the way here, but she can imagine it's nearly the opposite for him. They beginning stumbling through the foliage, and they both occasionally call out Miku's name but get no reply.

"I wonder what this forest is for," Rin says. They're beginning to get into thicker foliage, the patches of dirt with no spurts of vegetation becoming smaller and smaller as they go along. Len parts two intruding fern leaves as they walk forward, dancing around the thick, deep-brown roots of trees. Len shrugs.

At once, Rin hears a noise.

It sounds like a croaking, but not a very frightening one. It sounds almost comical, not exactly froglike, and Rin looks forward and up to locate who or what is making the noise. Despite how it sounds friendly, both of them tense in warning and worry. Rin's eyes search the dense vegetation and at last she spots the offender and where the noise is coming from.

A colorful parrot sits on a thick branch of a tree before them, wrinkled black and white skin surrounding its yellow eye. It appears to be a macaw, distinctive by its awkward black beak.

It flaps its blue and yellow wings several times and squawks and croaks again.

"Oh, hi," Rin says, somehow feeling unthreatened by the creature despite its hooked beak and heavy black claws that could, if turned against you, rip skin and tear and gouge out eyes.

"Welcome, welcome!" the bird squawks, flapping its wings again. "I can't seem to locate Rin and Len…But if you can relay this message, tell them to be careful!"

Rin gazes at the bird as it squawks again. She's intrigued by its mention of their names, and she realizes that perhaps Miku passed through here and left the message on the parrot. The parrot flaps and flaps. "_One plus one equals three!"_

The parrot no longer seems to have the intention of saying anything interesting, so Rin glances at Len to have permission to begin ignoring it. Len shrugs his shoulders and they continue on through the foliage.

"That message the parrot said…" Len says, and Rin can guess what he's going to say. "Miku most likely left that."

"Yeah," Rin agrees, hanging close to his warm side. "I wonder why she told us to be careful…?"

"I don't know, and I don't particularly want to know," Len says, laughing weakly. Rin joins in with the awkward laughter as they continue moving on.

For a second, Len pauses and then continues.

As they progress, Len begins to pause more and more, and at last Rin asks what he's doing.

"I keep on thinking I _hear_ something," Len says, his voice quivering slightly. The foreboding message Miku or someone left for them seems to be getting to his mind and he's more tense and ready to strike than normal. "It sounds like…I don't know. Some kind of deep purring, or something."

Rin thinks, and she finds herself recalling a similar strange noise on occasions earlier and she tenses as well. "Oh boy," she says unenthusiastically, and then they proceed to creep forward slowly, unsure of themselves.

Len growls occasionally and he is obviously disturbed, his ponytail standing out on end as if it has a mind of its own. The sound of whirring emanates from a ventilation slit in his back as they creep, hyperventilating slightly.

They walk for a while when something twisted and strange collides with Rin's foot. She looks down in disgust and finds a ripped, twisted leek near the ground by her foot. It's the one Mikuo gave Miku.

"Len," she says weakly, clinging to the frayed material on the sleeve of his sweater. Len glances down and tenses.

"I…"

Before Len can clearly react, the hidden purring or growling from before becomes a loud, dangerous snarl, then a terrible roar. Rin can feel the ground literally shaking from the noise, and Len's eyes narrow in fear and tenseness as he gets ready to attack anything that approaches. Whatever is making the infernal sound of leaves and foliage being ripped and shredded approaches, and before Rin can even think, Len takes flight.

The fabric of his sweater that Rin holds is ripped from her grasp as Len leaps forward and onto the slippery back of a huge, white metal lion. The lion roars and shakes as the much smaller Len clings to the slippery glossed metal on its back, his hands scrabbling at its smooth coat.

Lines of glowing blue are embossed into the creature's side, the lights ebbing in and out ominously. It manages to send Len reeling off its back, but he manages to hold on by grasping a protruding ledge.

"Len," Rin says quietly as she watches Len hang helplessly as the huge creature shudders and turns, looking for the robot boy to pulverize him and rip him to shreds.

It's huge, at least eight times her size, as tall as a door and as long as at least three normal-sized lions. Len clings to it and struggles to climb back onto it, grabbing onto its synthesized mane made of coarse, white hairs. He clings there, and the lion feels the tugging at its collar. It roars and raises its front legs into the air in attempt to throw him off. Len slips and snarls, his fingers digging futilely into the material beneath his fingers.

Len's attacks to its hide seem pointless and weak, his drill clattering off its side helplessly. He growls and snarls, but it doesn't intimidate the creature at all; instead, it bucks again, roaring. Len begins painstakingly shooting energy from the gun on his back, and Rin's heart flies when she sees it has an effect.

The concentrated energy blasts a large dent into the creature's side, and it roars in agony, twisting in rage and doing a mad dance. Len grimaces and continues to shoot repeatedly at the spot until the white metal gives way and a hole blasts through, revealing complex, silver gears and black wires within, coordinating the lion's body. Len sticks his left arm into the churning gears and grimaces in pain as the gears rip at his skin. Rin hears the whirring of his drill begin and the more sensitive insides of the creature give way and shatter.

The creature roars and convulses, leaping into a tree in its crazed dance. The tree shudders and creaks under its weight—then breaks, sending the creature and the hanging Len down. In a sickening moment, Rin sees Len's bent hands slip and he falls into a clump onto the ground with a nauseating _snap._ Rin makes a break for his mangled body as he begins to struggle to sit up, his limbs shaking under the effort as he falls again. The metal bangs and clangs loudly as the lion falls to the ground as well, shaking the floor and making powdered dirt fly up. The lion roars and stumbles to its feet hastily, and Rin screams and rolls away as the lion leaps upon them.

She manages to barely escape its fiercely hooked claws, but it's not so lucky for the crippled bodyguard robot. The sound of his desperate screams as the lion rips his skin bang in Rin's ears loudly as she pants and only manages to watch from the side.

Rin can see Len pinned under the claws of the beast and she struggles to her feet, her muscles shaking with fatigue, and she thinks she has no offensive weapons.

She suddenly remembers the backpack.

She looks at Len desperately and is almost thankful that it's no longer on his back. Upon looking around, she finds it discarded to the side, dirty and ripped in multiple places, and she clambers over. Carelessly she throws aside anything she doesn't need and burrows her hand into it until she hands find the cold metal barrel of the small handgun. She pulls it out and cocks it, pointing it at the large wound in the machine-creature's side.

She pulls the trigger.

The bullet buries itself into the metal clockwork of the lion's insides and it screams and plunges a paw forward. The huge, five-clawed paw pushes against Len's chest and Rin hears a sickening crunch as it gives way.

Len's soul-splitting scream breaks her heart and eardrums into a million tiny pieces.

The lion falls to its side, the small bullet jarring its clockwork-powered body and causing it to jerk as if having a seizure. Then it stops, unable to move, though it continues watching them with venomous eyes. Rin runs past it and to Len, who is still screaming, screaming.

When Rin approaches, Len doesn't acknowledge her existence. He continues writhing on the ground, eyes feverish and his body mangled. Rin's heart plummets to her stomach when she sees the gaping hole in his chest, black gears whirring within. Strands of long wires and chains are hanging out of the gargantuan wound, pulled out of place and severed by the lion's wickedly hooked claws.

"Hold still," Rin says desperately, but Len continues whimpering and he curls up in pain.

"Len?" Rin asks and her voice is tinged with hysteria. She doesn't want Len to die, not only because she knows she can't defend herself and because—because she actually cares about him.

Rin gently moves him so the wound in his chest is facing towards the sky as she examines the damage. She doesn't understand a bit about the wires within him and she bites her lip, not knowing how to help. His glossy metal hands are dented and kinked, and they scrabble at the dirt in feverish spasms.

Rin reaches out to touch the edge of the wound and Len begins screaming again and flailing, his sharp hand cutting Rin's cheek. Rin bites her lip to hold back the pain and then pins his chest and arms down, preventing further movement. Len whimpers and snarls, so terribly that Rin feels terror jerking through her bones. Unable to do anything but soothe him, she leans over his face desperately.

"Len, Len, Len," she whispers into his ear, softly, reassuringly. Len's screams reduce down to uncontrolled yelps as she does so, then to sad whimpers. He looks at her with clouded, pained eyes, his mouth barely moving to speak.

"Do you love me?"

Rin is taken aback and freezes, then gazes at his teary blue eye for a long while. She finally finds her voice among the sea of confusion in her heart.

"Len?" she asks uncertainly. Len looks at her with those foggy eyes filled with desperation and Rin does the only thing she can to soothe the distressed robot. "Of course," she says, touching his face gently. Len seems to be soothed by her words and her touch and his eyes begin to close.

Rin can feel him slipping. She leans closer to him with worry as his eyes close and the gentle vibration from machinery whirring below his skin stops.

Rin watches him for a while, stunned by his words. Then she wonders if she really _does_ love him. And after a while, she realizes she _can._

She's stunned how vulnerable she suddenly feels and, with a burst of hysterical anger, she turns and thrusts the barrel of the gun near the lion's right eye and shoots. The lion screams in pain and roars some more as Rin punctures its left eye as well, her shoulders heaving with anger at everything, everything that has gone wrong.

Her shoulders heave with the beginnings of sobs, her hands dropping the gun to reach up to obscure her face. She finds herself crying pitifully, whimpering with flushed anger and anguish. For the first time, she feels the loss of someone she has _loved_.

Then she stops, suddenly feeling utterly alone. Len is gone and so is Miku. Still hiccupping, she crawls over to Len, her face pinched with frustration, and begins stuffing the hanging out chains and wires back into him almost uselessly.

"Don't do that, Rin."

A voice comes from nowhere, mature and feminine. Rin turns and she hears approaching footsteps, her heartbeat quickening and her shoulders tensing. What comes stumbling out of the foliage is not who she suspects, however.

It is Meiko, walking daintily and carefully, her eyes as bandaged as ever. To Rin's surprise, she manages to make it over to her and Len without stepping on any of them. She bends over almost as if to look at the stopped Len.

"If you stuff those metal things back in you'll just damage his insides," Meiko says. Rin watches her wearily, surprised.

"How did you get here…?" Rin asks. "And how did you know I was trying to put those wires and chains back in? You're blind, aren't you?"

Meiko laughs, her creamy hair falling around her face as she bends over Len and begins feeling his chest to examine the damage. "How I got here is easy. The news of you three escaping is _everywhere_. The whole laboratory is under Code Red constantly because the scientists are all having nightmares about the new supposedly brutal bodyguard robot on the loose." Meiko mumbles something and grabs onto a chain hanging out of the wound and pulls softly. She thrusts her hand into the hole in his chest and tinkers with something within as she talks. "So I heard you three escaped almost right away. That inspired me to go off as well, and the scientists thought I was completely harmless and let me wander out.

"I managed to get some scientist help and got into the development wing, as I heard a report from the top development scientist, Gumi, that she had found you guys but you had escaped into the jungle where they kept the extremely dangerous battle lion," Meiko continues, gesturing at the now dead lion lying on its side nearby. "I managed to get in because the door they had was very makeshift after you guys ripped off the sturdy old one. And I found you. And at the second question, I heard it. My senses are pretty good, not only because I'm blind, but because they sharpened my senses in the lab but utterly failed at upgrading my eyes."

Meiko reaches up to touch the bandage on her face and Rin watches, feeling bad. Meiko then reaches her hand back into Len's chest and Rin is surprised when she pulls out a whole onslaught of black wires and battery cases and gears, all interconnected.

"I'm going to just take all this stuff out," Meiko explains. "If we just let it drag around, it'll probably damage it more than if we just hang on to this."

"Are you…" Rin says carefully. "…implying he can actually start working again?"

"With hard work and some effort," Meiko says, and Rin can't hide the grateful and relieved smile that invades her face. "Why don't you carry him? We can go get to a phone booth and call Neru. She can probably fix him with time." Meiko says.

Rin is slightly worried about the daunting task of carrying him everywhere, but, upon picking his limp form up, finds him as light as a ragdoll, severely lightened by the wires Meiko had taken out. She puts the gun in the backpack and picks up it up. Meiko carries the bundle of black machinery as they walk.

"Where's Miku?" Meiko finally asks as they dodge sturdy plants through the forest. Rin looks at the floor and shrugs. She desperately doesn't want Miku to be dead (her death would make her feel even more useless than she already does) but she isn't so sure of Miku's fate.

Len is limp and cold in her hands and she gazes into the hole in him with masochistic interest. Most of the machinery within is taken out in the area through his body, and Rin can see the frame that helps hold up his skin on the inside of his form. She looks away quickly because the gaping emptiness of the hole scares her. Len hangs limply off her back where she is carrying him.

Meiko begins humming a tune softly, holding onto Rin's hand for guidance. For the first time, Rin realizes she has to lead them and takes her strides more confidently, despite how cold and fearful she feels on the inside.

At last the trees begin to become sparser, the foliage thinning out. After a while more of walking, they reach another door with an old-fashioned bolt door. Rin slides the bolt aside and the door opens easily.

"What's beyond?" Meiko asks. Rin glances forward. She can see some dark-looking black halls ahead.

"It's probably more of the development wing," Rin says. She glances at Len over her shoulder and remembers his unconscious state. She shrugs quickly, trying not to think about it, and then leads Meiko into the darkness.

Almost immediately, they stumble upon a small phone machine fixated into the wall and Rin is immensely grateful. She picks it up and then turns to Meiko.

"Do you know Neru's number?" she asks, and Meiko nods and holds out her hand for the phone. Rin hands it carefully into her outstretched hand and Meiko begins hitting at the numbers slowly, trying to remember their positions. After a while she hands it back to Rin and Rin holds it up her ear and waits as the phone rings softly.

She's relieved when Neru's familiar voice emanates from the other end. "Hello?"

"Neru?" Rin asks. She's trying not to sound too desperate but she feels like she's failing at it. Her fingers hammer on the synthesized plastic covering the phone out of nervousness.

"What's wrong?" Neru asks.

"Um…Len's really beat up," Rin manages to squeak out. "Maybe…Could you come over to fix him?"

"Um, okay," Neru says and her voice is concerned. "My cell phone says you're calling from the phone booth in the East Development Wing?" Rin quickly utters that that's probably the correct location and Neru seems content with that solution.

"The development wing is kind of far away, but I'll come over," Neru says. Rin manages a quick, squeaky "thank you" before muttering her farewells and hanging up.

"She's coming over," Rin says to Meiko, and Meiko nods. "I guess we should just stay here?"

"For now," Meiko says. "If anyone comes, we're going to have to make a run for it. We can run back into that forest to hide."

With that, Rin slides into a sitting position on the metal floor and sets Len down. His blue eye is closed peacefully, his eyelid unmoving, while his red eye is glaring upwards at the ceiling unseeingly. Rin sees that it has no eyelid but it's still disturbing, seeing the bloodshot eye staring at nothing. She gently smoothes his hair over the offending eye and pats his limp arm, trying to ignore his wound. She begins treating his smaller wounds absentmindedly with the ointment and Meiko sits down besides her.

"Don't kill yourself, okay?" Rin says to Len, even though she knows he can't hear.


	6. Chapter 6

_wowee this chapter is short! only 8 pages on microsoft word and 3,965 words. _

_WE'RE ALMOST HALFWAY THROUGH! this story only has thirteen chapters, plus an epilogue! we're also at around 28,000 words, which is cool, since the story's like...54,000 words if i remember correctly. maybe 53,000._

_again i apologize for the bad writing bows head to floor and kisses toes also i realize i've never said this and i'm sorry but THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS YOU GUYS hugs and squeezes you guys until you die oops_

_also ok. i will put up my 2010 NaNoWriMo eventually._

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.Chapter6

After waiting what seems like several hours (and Rin admits she manages to catch up on lost sleep a little), Neru approaches from the opposite direction from whence they came. Rin sees her and stands quickly, fixing her eyes on the other girl. Neru steps over and sees Len on the floor and can't help but gasp a little.

"Len?" she asks, her voice filled with muffled fear. She stoops over the mangled body and Meiko holds out the pitch-black machinery she took out. Neru takes it and holds it to her chest as she feels Len's forehead.

"Not good," Neru mumbles. "It seems like all his functions have stopped, or at least most of them. There doesn't seem to be any heat coming from him."

Rin bites her lip until it bleeds as Neru digs her hand into the hole in his chest and feels something within before taking her hand out and sorting the various wires and chains. She grabs onto the end of one chain and plunges it into his chest, then takes her hand out. The chain is connected into whatever's inside, but Neru sits back and frowns.

"We'll need to take him to a room with proper equipment," Neru sighs. "I'll have to work alone on him, so it'll take a while." Rin looks at Neru anxiously and is not at all reassured when she sees the fear and anxiety reflected on her face. Neru sits back and looks around.

"Where's Miku?" she asks, and it feels as if a rock has plummeted into Rin's stomach. Once again, she feels useless, small, and naked. Suddenly the floor is very interesting and Neru's prolonged silence reigns around her shivering body.

"I…I don't know," Rin finally manages, her voice catching in her throat. "After…after that green-haired woman attacked us, Miku managed to get away, and when Len and I got through she was already gone."

Neru is silent for a while, and then brushes some of her dirty blonde locks away from her eyes. "Miku…I hope she's okay. I really, really do. Oh god, we better find her before Mikuo finds out."

"What's the deal with Mikuo and Miku? He seems really attached to her," Rin asks, trying to move the conversation away from the disappearance of Miku. Neru glances at Rin for a second before hefting up Len's limp body into her arms and walking down the hallway. Rin struggles to keep up, holding Meiko's hand to guide her.

"He's her brother," Neru says simply with certain finality to her tone, and Rin knows that she will say no more. Rin holds back the welling questions that begin bubbling up her throat and clamps her mouth shut, thinking about Neru's proclamation. She can't comprehend how Mikuo could be Miku's brother, but eventually she gives up in attempting understanding and hustles up to Neru's side, walking briskly.

"Go in this room," Neru instructs, turning to a door. She fumbles with a card and slides it through a sensor and the door clicks open. Neru turns her head slightly to talk to Rin.

"I'm pretty sure there isn't going to be anyone in here," Neru says. "This is where Len was developed, so it has the proper materials, I would think. I know this room because I was allowed into it a lot to help with development, though most of the time my dad deploys me to do daily checks on robots in cells instead of actually making robots."

Neru taps her blue pen on her clipboard as they enter before sliding the pen into the clip and setting it down on a metal table set off to the side. Meiko closes the door behind them, fumbling slightly with the doorknob.

Rin can't help but peek over to glance at what the mysterious clipboard has on it as Neru goes off and places Len's ragged and torn body into a metal tub attached to the wall.

Rin notices barely any writing, contradicting what she previously assumed Neru was doing. The first piece of paper has several lines ruling it and a few notes scribbled across. "_E56-008 doing fine, mostly functional. A88-233 has injury on arm."_ A corner of the next page is peeking out lopsidedly from beneath the first, and Rin notices strange markings on them. Rin eyes Neru and sees that she's messing with wrenches and extra wires, plunging the tools into Len's chest and pulling out strange things she doesn't understand. Quickly, inconspicuously, Rin flips the first page upward to see what's below.

It's a picture, sketchy but definable in blue ink. Her eyes flick across the picture and she sees that it looks remotely like her and Len, but much younger. They're smiling and he's holding a banana while she gnaws at an orange slice, and no mechanical appendages are anywhere. Both of Len's blue eyes shine naturally and his outstretched fingers are made from flesh and bone, as well as her own fingers that grasp the orange slice. It is clear that they are not robots.

Rin stares at it a while, staring in awe at how real they look before she remembers she isn't supposed to be peeping. She flips back to the first page quickly, glancing at Neru. Neru is still working over Len, and Rin walks over to look.

"Lucky," Neru mumbles as Rin approaches, sensing her presence. "None of his memory data is damaged, so hopefully he'll still be the same person when he wakes up again."

Rin can't help but smile at this suggestion and peeks over the rim of the tub. Neru is attaching the wires and chains back into his body, tightening and snipping ends of some of them to get them to fit in snugly. To the side, a frame is set on a small metal table, the wires in the frame thick and made of steel. Rin watches with subtle interest and Meiko hangs in the back, sitting in a warmed chair almost regally.

Rin turns back to Neru, constantly glancing at Len. He looks so peaceful and calm, despite the disgusting, almost disturbing hole right through his body. Neru shrugs at Rin.

"You better rest while you can," Neru says without looking at her. Her hands and eyes are busy working with Len. "You probably won't get to sleep very much other than now."

"True," Rin admits, though she's worried for Len. Reluctantly, she slides over to one of the chairs and nestles her head into the covered, heated arm, enjoying the emanating warmth. She looks at Neru working there, bent over the metal tub for a while before her eyes grow heavy, lulled by the heated warmth of the seat, and she sleeps.

* * *

All is silent when Rin awakens again, roused by a soft sighing and wheezing in the corner of the room. She shifts uncomfortably, and as the sound continues she eventually opens her eyes, blinking rapidly as the lights shine into her eyes. When she looks around her, she sees Neru sleeping quietly, her mouth slightly agape on a chair as well as Meiko curled up in another. The room is mostly silent other than the noises coming from the corner and Neru's soft breathing, and Rin gets up slowly to investigate.

She finds the noises are coming from the tub and she walks up almost apprehensively, suddenly a little scared. She peeks inside.

Len is curled up in the bottom, sighing and wheezing as he breathes softly, and Rin notices the hole in his stomach is mostly gone, though the fabric of his shirt is still ripped. She reaches out to caress his face and he twitches at the touch. Rin can't help but smile suddenly when she realizes he's alive and well.

Rin scoots a chair close to the tub and almost guiltily grabs Neru's clipboard off the metal table and begins flipping through the pages. Most of them are drawn in blue pen, while others are sketched in pencil. Neru seems to draw a lot—sometimes it's of her and Len playing, years younger than they appear. Sometimes it's of Miku, also looking younger and not mechanical, holding a leek, sometimes with Mikuo, who is also younger. There's one dynamic picture of young Miku wielding a sword, the background colored darkly to make her stick out.

Rin peeks closer and sees that's it's the very sword in the frayed backpack. Rin looks around and is reassured when she sees the dirtied white backpack (which is no longer so white) tucked in the corner of the room.

Suddenly someone stirs and Rin snaps the papers on the clipboard back into place, quickly placing it back on the table. She feels relieved when she sees it's only Len. He sits up groggily, then yelps sharply and drops a little before catching himself.

"It hurts," he says, his voice husky from sleepiness. He puts a hand to his side and gasps heavily. Rin looks at him sympathetically and with concern. His heavy, wheezing breaths resonate in the enclosed space of the room.

"Shh," Rin soothes, placing her hand on his chest. She feels a sharp jolt of surprise when he feels his bare skin and how it's ridged by stitches, but she realizes Neru most likely had to sow his skin together to seal the wound. She strokes his skin and Len sighs, curling towards her touch as he whimpers softly under his breath. He flops down again with a resounding thump and Rin stands up to reach down to stroke his soft blonde hair.

After a while of silence, Len speaks and his voice is thin and wheezy, as if there's a leak in his throat. "I'm alive."

Rin looks at him in surprise, then strokes his hair some more and laughs softly from relief. "Yeah. Neru's a real genius, isn't she?"

Len sighs and smiles weakly at her, his face tired and weary. "It hurt a lot when that lion stabbed me, Rin. It really did. You don't even know.

"It was like—like fire. Everywhere," Len says, gripping his chest wearily. Rin soothingly strokes his hair continuously, patting his head gently to comfort him.

"I know, I know. But it's going to be better now," Rin whispers, taking his hand and holding it tightly in her own, pulling it close to her chest. "I'll be here for you."

Len looks at her and finally smiles a little, wheezing out a trill of thankfulness. He curls up, still gripping her hand and squeezing it tightly. Rin is still slightly concerned about his voice and pain, but he decides to wait until Neru awakens to ask about it or give his wound time. For a while, everything is silent, and Rin grasps his hand knowing she's holding onto one that's alive.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, Len breaks the silence. "D-Do you really actually like me?"

Rin looks at him, amused by his embarrassment. She squeezes his hand with hers and he squeezes it back hesitantly, still awaiting her answer.

"Do you think I would lie to you?" Rin asks. Len hesitates and looks at her with uncertain eyes and suddenly Rin feels bad for all those moments she's been afraid of him, hesitated around him and acted as if he were a monster.

"Of course I like you," Rin says, smiling subtly. Len croons with delight and sits up to nuzzle against her, making her feel almost awkward. She hugs him back lightly and she can feel him wheezing out of a ventilation slit in his back. She pats him gently and holds him back to look him in the eye.

"We'll need to get Neru to look at you once she's awake," Rin says firmly, and Len tilts his head at her. "You're wheezing a lot, and you're not talking so well."

"Okay," Len says, looking back at her, right into her deep blue eyes. Rin looks back at his and into his glowing red eye as well, assuring herself she won't falter in loving him exactly how he is. Len sighs and curls up again on the bottom of the metal container, wrapping his back legs around himself to fit into the somewhat small tub.

Rin exhales softly through her nose and continues absentmindedly stroking Len's hair until his breathing calms to a soft wheeze and his eye closes. Finally, Rin falls into a light sleep as well until minutes—or is it hours?—later she feels Len nudging her with a curled wheel.

"Wake up," Len says. He's sitting up, albeit lopsidedly, nudging her with his raised back foot. Her eyes gradually move into focus and she finds Neru standing by her.

"Sorry," Neru says apologetically. "I needed you to move so I could work on Len for a bit. He says he's wheezing when he breathes and has some pain, so I'll try to fix it."

"No, it's okay," Len says. "We really should go. People might come looking sometime soon."

"Are you sure?" Neru says, studying Len's face. After a while, she sighs and nods. "Yeah. I'll go with you guys for a while, at least until you guys find Miku."

"We should look for her," Rin agrees, nodding as well in agreement, and then she gives Neru a somewhat skeptical face. "Isn't anyone going to wonder why you're gone?"

"No, not unless I'm gone _too_ long," Neru says. "I take vacations from time to time because I'm not really a real worker, so that's what people probably think I'm doing."

Rin nods to show her understanding and then takes Len's hand to support him. His hand is shivering slightly and Rin realizes he's probably in pain.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Rin whispers softly into his ear. "You're shaking."

"I'm fine," Len insists, and Rin sighs as Neru opens the door. She grabs the backpack and Neru grabs her clipboard and pen.

They slide into the darkness of the hall.

* * *

"Hey, Gumi."

Neru is clutching her yellow cell phone in her shaking hand. Rin is struggling to keep quiet so there's no sign of her being there—she knows Gumi is the head of the Development Wing and is also the green-haired woman who attacked them, judging from Neru's description of her appearance.

"Tough looking, with short, lime-green hair? That's her," Neru had described, her face unreadable. "She's really scary when she needs to be serious."

"What is it, Neru?" she hears Gumi's mature voice flowing from the speaker phone, surprisingly calm but preppy through the speakers. Rin realizes she's probably a lot nicer to the workers than the escaped robots. Neru fumbles with the phone in her nervous, sweaty hand.

Rin knows why she's so nervous—Neru told them how Gumi has a dog, who she calls Hiro, usually by her side. The dog can apparently hear and sniff out many things, and if the dog can hear their even slightest movement from the phone it will probably alert Gumi.

"I'm just wondering," Neru says, laughing loudly, attempting to hide her anxiety. "I'm working in the Storage Wing now, as you know. Those three robots—they're from some cell rooms I've been checking for the past year."

"Mm," Gumi says contemplatively from the other side.

"…So I'm wondering, have you seen them?" Neru asks. She knows—everyone knows—of how Gumi found them and attempted to capture them, but she's pretending she wants more details. Gumi exhales slowly from the other side of the phone.

"Well, Neru," Gumi says. "As you probably know, I encountered them when I was walking by the cell where we keep that giant mechanical lion that escaped a few years back. Um, it was all three of them. S20-756 and B25-757 and C11-983. I tried to get Hiro to stop them, but the bodyguard one—B25-757—retailiated. Hiro's still being repaired because of those wounds.

"After a while, S20-756 managed to get the door to the lion's cell off and C11-983 rushed away. I'm under the impression that she was pretty terrified. After that, the other two, S20-756 and B25-757, got away as well. I felt pretty bad about that, but I wasn't going to just go into that high level danger area.

"They probably just were destroyed by that lion," Gumi says, sighing. "It's really dangerous, and I doubt they could have survived."

Gumi's voice suddenly grows sympathetic as she speaks from the other side of the line. "I'm really sorry about that, Neru. I know those three were all modeled after—"

"Yeah," Neru says suddenly, cutting Gumi off sharply. Her words are stiff and her voice is tight. "I know. Don't talk about it."

"Sorry," Gumi says guiltily, her voice still ladled with that apologetic sympathy. "Well, that's all I've got to say."

"Thanks for your help, Gumi," Neru says, her voice low. Gumi mutters a goodbye and Neru hangs up by pressing a glowing red button on the keypad of her cell phone before sliding it back into one of the pockets on her lab coat. She turns to Rin, Len, and Meiko again. Meiko is leaning against the wall, and Len is curled up against the wall on the floor, his face unreadable. Rin is standing close to him, her eyes concernedly glancing from him to Neru.

"Gumi says Miku was most likely destroyed, but you guys weren't…so…" Neru pauses, looking at them almost hopefully.

"She's probably fine," Len whispers from where he's curled up and gazing into nothingness. His voice is barely audible and Rin is really worried for his condition. "She—she left a message for us."

"When we went into the forest, there was a parrot who told us to be careful. I think she left that for us, and if she knew a lion was in there she probably got past it to relay the message." Len explains, his voice raising a little and becoming a bit louder as he speaks. Neru nods, her face slightly relieved.

"We'll see if we can find her," Neru says carefully.

Rin is wondering about Gumi's cut off sentence despite it all, but feels nosy and says nothing. Neru gestures them to follow her and Rin grabs onto Meiko's hand to help her, and then bends down and takes Len's hand to help him up. She feels almost as she's leading around everyone, with Meiko gripping onto her hand for guidance and Len gripping her other hand for support. She struggles to keep up with Neru's constantly brisk pace.

"Looks like I have no choice," Neru mutters, suddenly stopping with some realization. "This might not be the best decision, but it looks like I'll have to do it, at this rate."

"What is it?" Rin asks, peeking over Neru's shoulder to see what Neru is doing. Neru pulls a strange, screened contraption out of her pocket and begins hitting buttons. The screen flashes words several times before at last arriving at a screen with many options. Neru presses one and hold the device to her ear. Rin presumes it's most likely a phone of some kind. Once again she recognizes the symbol that is emblazoned on various parts of her and Len's bodies—a large circle with a solid dot in the middle. It's on the back of the contraption, and she suddenly realizes it's probably the company logo.

"Hey, dad," Neru mumbles, her voice low and trembling slightly. Rin freezes as she suddenly remembers Neru's dad is the boss of the company, and she squeezes Len and Meiko's hands nervously. Meiko squeezes it back reassuringly and Len hangs close to her, his glowing eyes large in the darkness. His ponytail stands up on end and lights up like earlier.

Neru's dad seems to mumble something on the other side of the phone, and Neru speaks again. "I need to the password to the main database computer."

More mumbling, this time louder. Neru purses her lips and speaks again, her voice firm. "I need it to find the escaped robots! What do you mean it's too dangerous? I can handle it—"

Neru stops and her father on the other side of the phone mutters something quickly. When Neru speaks again, her voice is quieter. "Thanks so much. Bye."

"Huh," Neru says, hanging up and slipping the blocky phone device away before turning to stare at the others. "I'm going to get into the main database computer. My dad seems to think it's dangerous because it's very high-tech and could possibly get a mind of its own, almost. It has a lot of confidential data so my dad doesn't want it getting any viruses and sending the data off."

"Okay," Rin says, blinking. Neru nods briskly and then begins walking again, this time with more purpose. Rin struggles to keep up, as always. Len nearly suffocates her with how close he's hanging to her.

They walk for a while and Neru seems to know the Development Wing pretty well with the way she confidently walks down the halls. They twist and turn around, as always, for a long,

long while.

It seems like forever, and they pass through many doors. Rin begins to get tired and she can feel Len and Meiko tiring alongside her, their steps slowing. Neru sighs and begins slowing down as well, glancing behind her at the others.

"I guess it's farther away than I thought," Neru admits. "I guess we can rest if we find an abandoned room to stay in—it shouldn't be _too_ hard, there have been a lot of unused rooms in the development wing since the beginning, for ambitious projects in the future."

Rin hopes they stumble upon one of those rooms soon, and eventually they do. She feels immensely grateful—her feet are tired. Len plops on one of the chairs lined up on the side of the very empty room and flexes his ankle joints that connect his four metal legs to his four wheel-like feet, lifting them up to look at them and flopping them around.

Rin looks around the room—it's mostly empty, just with chairs lined up on every side, a table, and a small door fitted into the back. She doesn't bother to wonder what's on the other side of that door as she yawns. It's not the most comfortable thing to rest on, with only chairs and without a bed, but she scoots her chair right next to Len's and rests her head on his shoulder. Len smiles and makes a noise from the back of his throat in relief and delight and scoots closer to her.

Neru smiles faintly at them from a chair on the other side of the room, her clipboard a few feet away from her chest, her blue pen poised to write—or draw, Rin realizes. Meiko is on yet another side, curled up in one of the chairs.

Rin raises her head slightly when she thinks she hears a noise, like a thump, coming from the other side of the room, but Neru is drawing quietly and Meiko is fast asleep. She looks at Len quizzically and he looks back at her, tilting his head. Rin shrugs and presumes she's been hallucinating and rests her head down again.

Rin's eyes are heavy from constant walking and she at last lets her eyelids close, her head nestled into the warmth of Len's shoulder.


	7. Chapter 7

_yay peanuts we're on chapter 7 we're ALLLLMOST done that's what i always say. except there are 13 chapters and an epilogue so not really. but whatever AAAH! i just want to get this story over with. maybe i should upload something i wrote more recently while i'm uploading this one because this one is REALLY EMBARRASSING...what do you guys think._

_sorry about this being kind of weird and neru being kind of weird i wrote this 2 years ago and i was weird this issdkjladasldk sorry i'm embarrassed. anyway UM have fun with chapter 7? we're at 30,000+ words now so just... around 20,000 words to go! it's not so bad, right! i suppose this is a more plot-filled chapter sorry about the filler chapters before._

* * *

.Chapter7

Later, they're running endlessly through the halls again, the only light from the dim candles in the hall and from Len's glowing eyes, arms, legs, and ponytail.

Rin is secretly comforted by the light—being in the darkness is far scarier than she imagined it could be, and she's also secretly thankful for being able to hold onto Meiko and Len's hand in the dim lighting of the halls.

Neru is brisk as always, but after the sleep it's a lot easier for Rin to keep up with her. Neru laughs softly when she feels Rin near her side.

"You're lucky," Neru mutters softly, her voice soft and padded in the still air of the halls.

"The main database just happens to be in the East Development Wing, so you don't actually have to go _that_ far. Given, the East Development Wing is probably the biggest wing in the laboratory rather than the West Development Wing, which is the biggest one by far."

"Lucky," Rin agrees, moaning softly in misery. "I don't think I could survive if it _wasn't _here."

Neru laughs softly again, then stops abruptly. "We're here."

Rin looks up and sees a huge set of double doors, and when Len approaches it and the golden light from his ponytail falls upon the metal surface she sees "MAIN DATABASE COMPUTER: DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT PERMISSION" written in large, white paint across it. Neru ignores the order on the door and slides her name card from her pocket across a scanner machine next to it. There's a resounding _click_ as the door unlocks and the two metal doors turn inwards automatically. Neru steps forward and into the room, Rin, Meiko, and Len following quickly beside her.

Once in the room, Rin has to squint because of the harsh, blue light that coats every square inch of the enclosed area. When she looks up, she sees three, large screens that curve around the back wall of the room, which is circular in shape, not unlike a semicircle. An almost amusingly small keyboard in comparison to the huge screens is placed before the screens, built into a pedestal.

Neru steps up to the pedestal and moves the mouse beside the keyboard. The harsh blue light flickers away and turns into a softer one, and displayed on the middle screen is a text bar in the middle of a sea of pale, powder blue. Above it, in flashing black words reads "Please enter a password."

Neru mumbles incoherently and then begins typing rapidly on the keyboard. Small, circular dots begin filling the text bar before Neru smacks enter with her index finger and the computer beeps.

"Welcome back" it reads on the screen. Neru nods dismissively and clicks an icon on the bottom of the screen, which blows up and becomes a process. Rin glances at its name: "ROBOT DATABASE FILES".

Neru rapidly types into a search bar on the upper right of the window, her words hammering out Miku's robot name. She presses enter again and the window returns one file—C11-983, exactly what Neru is looking for. She clicks the file and it blows up into a window.

Rin glances upwards and sees a picture of Miku—the very same that was on Miku's card. Below, it, the font displays lots of information about Miku, stretching across all three screens.

_C11-378_

_Type: Culinary Robot_

_Cell Number: __Escaped ! Microchip attached. See below for location._

_Status: Functional ?_

_C11-378, reportedly called "Miku" by other robots and Neru Akita, an intern working at SOL CORPORATION, is a culinary robot as well as the first successful, fully-robotic robot with human intelligence created in the world._

Rin is stunned by this first paragraph and realizes Miku is far older than she had previously assumed. She struggles to read rapidly, as she knows Neru could probably care less about such information that she already knows and will probably navigate away from the page. Neru is tapping her hands on the keyboard as she scans the screens.

_She was designed around five years back to be based off how Miku Hatsune, a girl who died approximately 5 years ago, would look like. Her synthesized skin and organs use the materials produced by the GLY Corporation, which are synthesized to grow and make her appear older while remaining functional. This process can be easily reversed and/or stopped._

_The only other robots who use this material are __S20-757__ and __B25-767__, all of which are based off children who died several years ago in the tragic bombing on the Western City. Accounts of the deceased children can be found in the "Miku Hatsune", "Rin Kagamine", and "Len Kagamine" files. _

_All three of these children had been friends. Miku was ten at the time of her death and Len and Rin, who were twins, eight. _

_As a skill, Miku reportedly enjoyed practicing sword fighting and fencing and was known for her skill. She also loved the taste of green onions and reportedly grew them in her portion of the backyard._

_Miku has only one living relative, who is also the only living survivor to be in the Western City at the time of the bombing. Reportedly, said relative [her older brother] was about to leave through the barrier surrounding the city to traverse to the nearby town when the bomb went off. He was twelve at the time. More information on her brother can be found in the "Mikuo Hatsune" file._

_Once, C11-983 had been a mascot for the company, being the first fully-intelligent robot developed, but after time and once more robots of such kind were developed, the idea of a mascot grew out of practice._

Rin is stunned beyond words. The article goes on describing the functions of that Miku has in very technical terms, but she can't believe what has been said above. That Miku and Len and she were all based off dead children brings shock through her veins, and she glances at Len. He's sleeping, wheezing softly, against the curved, plush wall of the room, having taken advantage of the somewhat boring situation and rested, and Rin smiles subtly and turns away, deciding not to awaken him. She turns back to the screen, still quite stunned. Then she realizes that's what Neru meant when she claimed Mikuo was Miku's brother.

When Rin glances up at the screen again, Neru has navigated away from the previous screen. She mutters something quietly.

"Well," Neru says, and she can't hide the wispy, shaking relief that cloaks her words. "Miku's alive. It says in the code that she's in some room, and she's not moving around, thank _god._ Let's go get her."

"Um, okay," says Rin, jolting slightly out of her initial shock. It makes her feel strange that Len was practically once her brother. Neru begins to leave the room, remembering to sign out of the huge computer, making it return to the flashing, pale screen that it showed earlier. Rin follows her quickly, not forgetting to reach over to nudge Len awake. His eye opens groggily, shiny from tears when he yawns hugely. Rin laughs, grabs Meiko's hand to help her up and around, and takes Len's again, feeling like she's playing follow the leader all over again. She hustles out of the room and follows Neru's rapid pace.

After a while of walking, Neru stops before a door and slides her name card through again, and then slides the door open. As Rin enters, realization dawns upon her.

"This is the room we just rested in," she comments, surprise touching her features. "You mean to tell me Miku is in here?"

Neru nods, tilting her head and Rin looks around in confusion. There's no green-haired robot in sight anywhere, and she can feel Len shift uncomfortably beside her and Meiko's expectant apprehension.

"Don't tell me she moved away from here _already?"_ Neru groans, throwing up a hand to rub against her face in exhaustion. "I don't want to log into that too bright computer again. My eyes hurt. Besides, it's highly unstable. It might crash and close down all power in the factory."

Len slides forward silently, glancing back at them nervously and then stopping with apprehension. He paws the grounds awkwardly on the floor as the others stare expectantly at him.

"She might be in _there,"_ Len says, gesturing towards the small door fitted into the back. The possibility dawns on Neru and she nods briskly.

"Yeah, maybe," she says. She slides over to the door and slides it wide open, revealing a mostly-empty room tiled by cold, square slabs.

Sure enough, Miku is lying against the wall, her arms folded on her lap as she rests peacefully.

"Oh, thank _god_," Neru sighs, relief dripping from her words. She half walks, half runs over to Miku and begins shaking her with rough tenderness. Eventually Miku's eyes begin to slide open slowly, though her eyelids still droop. When she looks up, her eyes widen slightly and then a smile splits across her face.

"Neru!" Miku shouts, suddenly barreling into her and wrapping her arms around the other ponytailed girl. Neru laughs a little and hugs her back lightly.

"You had us worried to death," Neru says, frowning jokingly. Miku laughs lightly, her voice hardly concealing her excitement and relief.

"You guys worried _me_ to death," she jokes, her voice tinkling in the air happily. "I thought you guys would really get screwed without me!"

Neru huffs and breaks away from the embrace as Rin, Len, and Meiko approach as well.

"Oh, you're here?" Miku says, smiling reassuringly at Meiko. "Cool! We're really a great team now, aren't we?"

With these words, Miku turns to Rin and Len and her face darkens slightly with concern. "You guys managed to get out of the forest? I barely got out. Luckily, the lion seemed to be sleeping…"

"We weren't so lucky," Rin replies, her heart trembling as she remembers the incident. "Len…He got fatally wounded, but Neru managed to fix him."

Suddenly Rin's eyes widen as she remembers something. "Wait, we were in this room before, and I heard a thump. Was that _you_, Miku?"

At this, Miku's eyes widen as well, a hand reaching up to cover her mouth in surprise. "Likewise, I heard people coming in. Was that all of _you?"_

"Probably," Rin says, laughing a little because they were so close yet they didn't realize. Miku laughs a little too, but Neru tugs nervously at the end of her coat.

"We better get moving before anyone notices," Neru says. "And I better get back to where I work before anyone gets the littlest suspicion. I'll probably leave tomorrow. But I'll stay for today."

"Okay," Miku says. "Have you guys made any progress in escaping? Like maybe finding exits?"

"Not really," Rin admits sheepishly. Miku shrugs in defeat and mutters a dismissive whatever.

Then she looks up again, determined fire shining in her eyes.

"We'll get away soon," she promises, and the sound of her voice rings in the emptiness of the room, echoing before dissipating into nothingness.

* * *

That night, they decide to sleep in the same place. Neru grabs some blankets and pillows from a nearby lounge and they lay them out on the floor to sleep. Neru decides to keep watch and asks Len to turn on his ponytail, which Len does willingly with a soft smile of consent.

Though it's late, Rin finds that she can't sleep. Len's body is curled up beside her, warm and rising and falling with each breath. Despite the lulling warmth surrounding her and the lullaby-like, rhythmic breathing of Miku near the other side of the room, Rin's mind is clogged with newly taken in information and she can barely think.

The room is lit with soft, golden and amber light that cloaks every corner of them room like dim fire. The light comes from Len's ponytail, ebbing and pulsating slightly. For a while, Rin stares into the orange haze of the room, unable to sleep. She twists and turns for a while before Len lets out a long, drawn out growl of discomfort in his sleep, compelling her to lessen her movements. She fidgets uncontrollably until she finds her mouth opening to speak.

"Were you their friends?" Rin asks, and she almost clamps her mouth shut midsentence when she realizes what she's saying. The already-awake Neru turns to her, foggy confusion on her face. "Miku, Len, and Rin, I mean? The _original_ ones?"

Rin can barely believe the words are coming out of her mouth despite that she knows full well that it could be very personal.

Neru's confused face melts into one of dark understanding and she looks down distractedly, poking at Len's ponytail when it falls and turns off, making it shoot up and shine with light again.

"Yeah," Neru says at last, her voice empty in the large space of the room. "We were best of friends, us five. Me, Rin, Len, Miku, and Mikuo. We had so much fun, despite the tight rules that were put upon us by the overprotective government."

"Oh," is all Rin can say. Her voice seems so flat, emotionless, and she regrets asking the question despite her curiosity, dark awkwardness dripping upon her.

"We lived in the Western City, the smaller, less industrious of the two capitols of the country. The Eastern City was supposedly far greater, more beautiful and taller, but we had a monopoly on trade, as the Western State was lined against the sea. Despite this monopoly, we never got as much as those in the Eastern state because the government had a firm grip on us and favored the Eastern City slightly. Of course, this didn't mean we weren't rich, greedy, spoiled." Neru blinks several times and then shakes her head slightly, letting her untied golden hair spill around her face like threads of glowing flax. The strands frame her face like waves in a way Rin has never seen before. She looks pretty that way, less tomboy-ish.

"Miku was amazing. She was the warrior, the prodigy in the art of sword fighting. Rin and Len…they were unnaturally cute. Rin…or you, whichever you prefer—was utterly _adorable._ You were always the more outspoken twin, but your charm could bend anyone to your will." Neru laughs slightly as she remembers, though her voice is sharp and choked with rising tears. "L-Len, he was the shy one. He always needed you to help him, and he couldn't try anything new without you trying it too. That might have changed if he actually had a chance to grow…anyhow; you two were the cutest out of all of us."

Neru laughs again, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "Rin, you've always been so observant. Even before, and…Well, let's just say I should have expected you to notice Miku's description on the main database computer. I probably would have had to tell you anyway, though."

She reaches out and strokes Len's hair absentmindedly as she speaks, running her fingers through his hair.

"Then came the day of the civil war, when the Eastern City decided that we needed to unite the two states and eliminate the Western City. My father and I had been on a business trip—I had decided to go with him so I could learn more about the technology of the androids that he was studying." Neru squeezes her eyes shut tightly, her fingers gripping Len's hair hard. To Rin's surprise, Len's eyes flicker open and he edges closer towards Neru comfortingly, curling around her feet reassuringly. Neru laughs a choked laugh again and pats Len on the head.

"You're just as cute as always, if not a bit more mature than you used to be," Neru says. Len blinks slowly and lethargically, his understanding face makes Rin realize he's been awake for the whole of her and Neru's conversation, or at least most of it.

"When it was the advent of the civil war—when the weapons of mass destruction were sent towards the Western City—no one had any idea. I…I wasn't there, but I was coming back from the airport in the nearby town of Fieldport. When my father and I arrived back…There was nothing left. The protective barrier had been shattered and there was nothing, nothing, nothing. Just ruins.

"It was only a few days later, when search and rescue group from Fieldport looked around in the ashes, that they found Mikuo, hanging onto Miku's favorite sword she used, crying his eyes out near the edge of the once-border."

"My father…" Neru hesitates, her voice cracking every few words. Her eyes shimmer amber in the orange light, wet with tears from reminiscing. "He's not actually mean. When we made robots, he modeled them after my friends for me. I…You…You guys aren't the same as you used to be, but you're still my friends. I just wish it didn't end the way it did, our old friendships."

"I'm really sorry," Len says and his tone is reassuring and calm and so filled with sympathy. Rin feels awkward but sorry for Neru—but then she takes her hand reassuringly, squeezing it slightly, then harder. Before Rin even realizes, suddenly Miku is there, wrapping her arms around Neru's shaking body while Meiko holds her other hand.

They are all there as Neru falls into silent tears.

* * *

The next day, they say nothing of last night's incident, despite that Neru's eyes are slightly puffy and red as evidence that _had_ happened. Len is curled next to Rin again, clinging to the sheets as if to dear life, his hands clenched into fists as he holds them. Rin's eyes flutter open and she pushes her body out of the tangle of blankets, her eyelids attempting to bat away sleepiness.

"Good morning," Miku mumbles, and Rin swivels her head over and sees Miku rubbing her eyes as well, her hair tossed and messy from sleep.

Before long, Len slides out of bed as well, stretching languidly on the sheets before yawning and proceeding to brush at his eyelashes. Meiko is already awake. Neru is sitting on a nearby chair, and she sends a glance at them before pressing the back of her blue pen and allowing the tip to protrude out.

She connects the tip of the writing utensil to paper and begins stroking the paper with the ball-point.

"Good to see that you guys are awake," Neru says, her voice careful as she most likely remembers the incident last night. She once again clicks the back of her pen and the ink-tipped point retracts into the blue shell.

She blinks several times in thought, then presses the top of the clipboard and pulls out the topmost sheet of paper and lays it face down on the table. She then stands and brushes the white material of her coat.

"I'll be leaving now, like I promised. You guys should continue going down this hall until you reach an intersection, then go to the left without any turns. You should get to an exit door, which leads to the lounge. The lounge, I'm pretty sure, is on the very edge of the laboratory, so if you find an exit, it'll probably be the way out." Neru says, smiling encouragingly at them, though she looks a little sad. "I might not see you guys again, but for now…Goodbye, guys. It was really fun being with you."

As if she can't stand the thought, Neru quickly leaves the room, and Rin watches the door close behind her.

"You were a good friend," Miku says. She then stands, her green and black skirt swishing around her legs. Len stumbles up as well, and Rin is glad to see he isn't limping as much as the day before, the sleep most likely helpful towards his recovery. The wheezing in his breathing has calmed slightly as well, and with the hopeful thought, Rin stands as well. Meiko smiles subtly and walks over to them.

"You all have good hearts," Meiko says, her smile never faltering. "But at this point, it'd be helpful to have Kaito."

"Kaito?" Rin asks, struggling to remember who he is. Suddenly, it comes to her. "Isn't he the other, um, person who the company gave up on developing?"

"Yeah," Meiko laughs a little. "We used to explore the laboratory, Kaito and I. After a while, I started feeling unwell because of all the drugs the company gave me, so I didn't go with him anymore. But he kept on going, going, going, until he was sure he knew the whole laboratory like the back of his hand. After a while they caged us up separately, so I don't know where he is."

"Oh, okay," Rin says, unsure where Meiko is getting with this. Meiko shrugs.

"Yesterday, I asked Neru where Kaito was." Meiko says and twirls a strand of her creamy brown hair around a finger. "She told me Kaito was really, really restless so they let him stay in the lounge a while ago while I was resting. Supposedly he's still there and always stays there." Meiko laughs a little at this. "That's another reason we're going there."

"Oh, okay," Rin says again, and Meiko nods briskly. Rin suddenly remembers the paper Neru left on the table and goes over to see what it is.

She turns around the white sheet of paper in her curious hands and smiles when she sees the picture on the other side.

It's a cute picture of her and Len sleeping soundly together, with Neru, Meiko, and Miku standing in the background sharing smiles on their faces. It's sketched quickly with blue pen, and the corner is has a few wet blotches on it from tears. A small message handwritten in blue is written on the bottom.

"_Rin and Len, I know you two are in love, and I'm okay with that, even though you two were once twins. I wish you guys luck!"_

Rin blushes a little when she realizes the context of the message and she holds it to her chest gratefully and looks up.

"We should go now," Miku says. "There will most likely be scientists lazing around in the lounge, so we need some lab coats to wear." She heads into the back, white tiled room and comes back with heaps of white coats in her thin arms. "Here."

Rin walks over and takes one, studying the coat. It's definitely too big, she thinks, and her worries are confirmed when she slips it on and it drags on the ground, the sleeves too large for her arms. Len takes one and slips it on as well. It looks comical on him as well. Rin laughs a little and Len smiles sheepishly back at her.

The lab coats are big for all of them, but it fits, to some extent, on Meiko. With this, Miku laughs a little at how they look and Rin reaches over to smooth Len's hair down over his abnormal, metal-plated eye. Len unties his hair to look less like he usually does, and Rin realizes they probably have to disguise themselves and takes the clips out of her hair. She stashes them in a pocket. She also unties the large bow on her head and tucks it away.

Miku shrugs and unties her ponytails as well, letting her cataracts of hair cascade down her back. With this, they exchange looks and head outside, Len carrying the beaten-down backpack.

They walk for a while in mostly silence, talking idly occasionally, until they meet an intersection and they turn left as told.

They continue on until they reach a door reading EXIT in the traditional peeling white paint. When Miku tries it, it's locked. She sighs and searches around until she finds her little card.

"You have one of those? I thought only the scientists did?" Meiko asks, hearing Miku sliding the card through the reading machine. Miku glances down at the worn-down card and shrugs.

"Oh, this?" Miku says. "I got one of these because the scientists were really proud of me for being their first robot developed. They let me roam wherever I pleased in the West Development Wing, and so I had one of these. It didn't work for everything, but it was nice before they threw me away into a cell when I wasn't "important" anymore."

Meiko nods in sympathy as Miku slides the verification card across the flickering machine beside the door again, impatiently tapping it. The door clicks and the light turns green.

Miku tries the door again, and this time the handle turns. Hesitating, Miku steps back for a moment to wipe her sweaty hands on the soft material of the coat and to push a strand of offending hair behind her ear. She smoothes down her long, uncontrollable hair before quickly stepping up to the door again.

"I don't want to get caught," she murmurs, her voice slightly tinged with fear. Len croons in understanding and Miku shrugs, releasing her tension, and opens the door, albeit a little hesitantly.

When they step into the room beyond, it's the first time Rin has seen a place that actually looks nice and well furnished in the whole laboratory.

The other side of the door is warm, dark rosewood, with a small golden plaque hung carefully near the top. "_East Development Wing"._

Around the door are pots with plants in it, and occasionally small, almost unnoticeable sprinklers spray tiny jets of water into the dirt without wetting anything beyond the circumference of the pot. The floor has a pretty, simple rug on it, plush beneath her bare feet and embroidered with flowers. Len is staring in awe at well, but when only when Rin looks up is she truly surprised.

The walls are almost made from completely windows, paned with crystal clear glass. Chairs are put in front of the gargantuan windows for people who want to see the view outside, and Rin watches with a mix of horror and awe at the pure beauty and terror of the sight.

For a second she thinks it's a simulation, but she realizes it isn't just by looking at it. Its grandeur is so much more than any simulation can do, almost like live music compared to a recording.

"Len?" she chokes out. Len is staring in fear as well, and he takes her hand and squeezes it between his spindly fingers. Rin blinks, trying to convince herself that it's simply a simulation, but it's near impossible. At last Miku says and comes to accept what Rin cannot.

"The lab is suspended in outer space," she says.


	8. Chapter 8

_EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW this chapter is so gross i can't believe i wrote it i must have been a gross child back then. EW EW EW squeamish. um anyway i think this is the shortest chapter of all of them. except for the last one._

_oh wait just kidding i just checked chapter 12 is shorter. WELL THEN. anyway fshshdfhsdf i'm embarrassed about this chapter but WHATEVER! throws hands in air_

* * *

.Chapter8

"_Now_ how are we going to get out of here?" Miku groans, covering her face in her hands. Luckily, no scientists seem to be around in the room, and Rin groans as well. Len blinks several times before plastering his face against the cold, icy glass, staring out into the slightly purple universe and the glimmers of stars beyond like tiny holes in the blanket of the sky. Twirling shooting stars glimmer by occasionally, arching across little distances before fading. Len stares and Rin comes over.

"What are we going to do?" Rin asks him, though she knows he doesn't have the answers. Len turns around, his breath leaving condensation on the coldness of the glass. He blinks meaningfully at her several times and then tilts his head.

"We'll just get out in a spaceship." Len says, shrugging.

"_Spaceship?" _Miku groans, her mouth agape. "And how are we going to get one of _those?_ Build it?"

Len growls a little, unnerved by Miku's sarcasm. Rin touches his arm carefully, guessing he's disappointed by the discovery of the laboratory's placement as well.

"Well, scientists have to get out of here, too," Len points out, his voice low and careful. "They probably have ships on board to help people leave. Otherwise, everyone's stuck on here."

Miku blinks and nods as she considers the proposal. "Let's hope you're right," she finally mutters.

"If so," Meiko says calmly, surprisingly cool-headed. Rin supposes she's probably known all along, but presumed the other robots knew as well. "We could ask Kaito where they are. He probably knows."

"True," says Miku, and her face lightens a little, and then she looks at the floor in embarrassment. "I'm sorry if I snapped. It's just…I've been here for six years and I'm so tired of seeing robots suffer. I just really want to leave, and discovering that the laboratory was actually a space settlement really put me off."

"It's okay," Rin says, and Len nods as well in agreement. Miku begins walking towards the nearest door.

"We've got to find Kaito, right?" Miku says. Meiko nods and she nods as well. "Gotcha."

Rin takes Meiko's hand to guide her and Len sticks to her side as Miku opens a door. Upon peeking inside, Rin sees a _lot_ of scientists, and her heart seems to skip a beat.

"Be inconspicuous," Miku whispers and they step in near silently, slipping into the crowd of white-clad adults. No one seems to mind them—they're too busy eating small snacks or talking heatedly.

"What does Kaito look like?" Miku asks, knowing Meiko can't recognize him for them due to her lack of eyesight. Meiko thinks for a second and then speaks.

"He had…has blue eyes and darkish-blue hair, like the ocean. It _was_ short too," Meiko comments. "He _was_ very cute, small, but he was fourteen then."

Rin pretends to be offended, huffing. She knows she's technically fourteen, based on how old the previous Rin was when she died, and Meiko laughs a little before continuing.

"Well, he's kind of funny-looking," says Meiko, laughing at her words. "Meaning, he looks like someone who's humorous, not all serious."

"Okay," Miku says, turning to Rin and Len. "Help me find him in this sea of white-coated men."

"Okay," Len says amiably, beginning to scan the crowd. They search in the room for a long while, but no one seems to match Meiko's description correctly, even if it's close. With a reluctant sigh, Miku heads into the next room over.

This one is just as crowded as the room before, except that it's a game room, filled with boards and stands where people stand around, entertaining themselves. Miku sighs and they have no luck in this room either. They head to the next room.

Surprisingly, the next one is nearly empty, just like the first room. Like the first room, it has huge, glass-paned window showing the galaxy beyond, and the chairs are only occupied by two people.

Miku smiles when she sees one of them is blue-haired from the back of his head, but her eyes narrow with concern when she spots the other one, a white-clad woman with pink hair cascading down her back in wisps of cotton candy. She wears long, black gloves and black boots that cover her legs, which are crossed so daintily.

"It's hard to believe you've been here longer than me," the woman laughs, her calm, womanly voice rolling through the air like clouds. "But you have."

The blue-haired man, who Rin thinks is possibly Kaito, laughs a little. "You say that nearly every day, Luka."

"That sounds like Kaito," Meiko says, her voice cutting through the air jaggedly. Rin looks up in surprise at how conspicuous Meiko has made herself with her loud words, and she panics a little when she sees the woman and Kaito turn. Miku looks desperate, panicked.

The woman raises an eyebrow and then Kaito stands, confusion written across his face. "Meiko?"

"Yeah," Meiko says and her voice is quieter now that she has their attention. "Who's this woman?" Meiko tosses her head towards the other woman, tilting her head questioningly.

"That's Luka," Kaito says. "She's a friend of mine, and she works in the Launch Wing where they keep the spaceships and get them ready to be sent back to Earth."

"Told you," Len whispers good humouredly to Miku, and she tosses her head dismissively in equally good humor.

"And," Kaito adds. "Who are your friends?"

Meiko shrugs and turns around to give a gestural glance at them. "The blonde girl is Rin, the blonde guy's Len, and the green-haired girl's Miku."

Kaito nods contemplatively and Luka waves good-naturedly at them. Rin waves back with a tiny gesture, not wanting to bring too much attention to her. The last thing she wants to happen is for Luka to notice they're similar to the escaped robots.

"It's good to see you, Meiko!" Kaito says, smiling a hilariously large smile. Meiko looks away, almost bashfully. "But what do you want?"

"Um," Meiko says, and Rin finds herself glancing at Luka awkwardly. Luka is examining her blue-painted nails before glancing up again, that soft smile constantly on her face. At last Meiko sighs and supposes she can trust the woman.

"Rin here is actually S20-756, Len is B25-757, and Miku is C11-983," Meiko says quickly and Rin sees Kaito and Luka's eyes widen. "They want to escape, but you're the only reliable person there is who knows the way around the laboratory. Can you help them…and me? We just want to get away from here."

Kaito blinks, then smiles hugely again. "Um, okay, sure."

"Wait," Luka says and her voice is tinged with confusion and surprise. "S20-756, B25-757, and C11-983? Aren't they the escaped, supposedly really dangerous robots?" Her blue eyes are wide and she glances at them hesitantly.

"They're really nice," Meiko assures. "I don't think they want to kill anyone. They just want to leave, like me."

"Okay," Luka says, though she still looks a little worried. She tucks a strand of powder pink hair behind her ear and bites her lip thoughtfully.

"The way out," Kaito says thoughtfully. He tilts his head in thought before jumping up in realization. "The closest one I think is—follow me!"

Miku glances at Rin and Len and smiles almost apprehensively as they follow Kaito around. Luka follows them as well from a few feet back, and suddenly Kaito stops.

"Err," he says, thinking again. "All the exits are in the launch wing, actually. Where the spaceships are, you know? Um, we'll probably have to go around the whole circumference of the lounge, which goes _around_ the whole space settlement, because it's on the other side. That might take a while, though…"

"Dang," Miku mutters. Rin looks at her with understanding because her legs are awfully tired too. Luka pipes up suddenly, her voice measured but calm.

"There are elevators that go around," she says. "Instead of going up and down, they go around a big circle, and they go pretty fast, so it should only take a half-an-hour or so."

"Oh yeah!" Kaito announces, excitement coating his voice. Rin can't help but laugh at how easily excited he is. "Let's go!"

This time Luka leads and they walk back and to the slanted inner wall. There's a small, polished set of doors there and Luka presses a button on a panel next to the door. The door opens and she gestures them inside.

Rin steps into the elegant, spacious elevator first, her metal feet kissing the cold, marble floor of the large, circular room. A golden sun is painted in gold foil at the center of the elevator, surrounded by white marble that climbs up the walls and stops at the ceiling, which is a huge mirror. Rin looks in awe as Miku and Len get in beside her, Len rubbing against her, purring, obviously happy for a reason Rin presumes is their nearing escape. Luka comes in, and then Kaito, who is holding Meiko's hand to guide her. Meiko whispers a thank you before the doors close and the elevator begins whizzing along.

Len clutches Rin's shirt, still making noises of delight and he buries his face into it, making Rin slightly embarrassed. She glances up and her eye catches Luka's, who smiles at her, giggling slightly at Len's antics as he continues rubbing against her, squeezing his eyes shut with content. Rin finds her skin tingling at the contact.

"Um, Len?" Rin whispers, heat spreading across her face as she feels the hot gaze of Luka, Kaito, Meiko, and Miku upon them. Len lifts his head and looks at her questioningly, and she gestures at the staring—if not slightly amused—people in the elevator. Len blushes slightly when he sees the others' prying eyes and shies away behind her, embarrassed at their amusement.

"Wait, _he's_ B25-757?" Luka says between giggles. "That's…he's…he doesn't seem like a super-dangerous bodyguard robot capable of killing all of us."

Len examines the floor at the words, flexing his fingers nervously. Rin pats his shoulder reassuringly and he glances at her thankfully.

"This ride's going to be long," Luka eventually says, yawning. She leans against the curved wall and eventually slumps on the floor. Meiko turns toward her carefully and hangs close to Kaito, who's looking around with great interest.

Len takes Rin's hand and presses his lips against her cold skin, his eyes upraising to examine her face. Rin is surprised at this, then relaxes even as Len trails his lips up her bare arm and then jumps from her shoulder to her cheek. He continues watching her, and Rin is looking at him with surprised but happy eyes. They've never really had such close physical contact.

His lips eventually move from her cheek to her lips and Rin closes her eyes in pleasure as his soft lips touch hers and capture them. He's content kissing her like that for a while before prods at her lips with his tongue. Her mouth opens instinctively, and he intertwines his tongue with hers for a few seconds before moving away, smiling gently. Rin smiles back at him, causing him to reach out to stroke her hair. She closes her eyes in pleasure.

Otherwise, the elevator ride isn't very interesting for Rin, but she feels the kiss makes up for all of it. She raises her fingers to her lips. They're still tingling.

* * *

Luka is shuffling through some note cards when the elevator lets out a ringing _ding_ to signify it's reached its destination. Kaito and Meiko, who are sitting on the floor, Meiko's shoulder on his, awaken quickly and Kaito sits up straightly before helping the blind Meiko up. Meiko glances in his direction thankfully.

"Len, wake up," Rin says, shaking his still sleeping form. Len groans and stretches out, rolling his roller feet on the ground before stopping his movements and going back into slumber. Rin pokes him again and at last he awakens, yawning.

"Are we there yet?" he asks groggily, his eyes half closed. Rin nods and he stretches out before stumbling up, still rubbing at his eyes. Luka steps up to the doors in anticipation as they slide open.

Rin's heart jumps.

On the other side, everything is flashing red—the halls, the walls, the ceiling—and in front of the door is a horde of _things_, scientists, dogs, cats, birds, animals of every kind.

"Gotcha," Gumi says.


	9. Chapter 9

_um hi...this chapter has a weird scene thing that's embarrassing that my sister FORCED me to add so please don't ask...i'll post something i wrote more recently soon (after I finish uploading this one). this is the 9th chapter, so i'm almost done! kind of._

_this one is long. it's around 7,000+ words._

* * *

.Chapter9

The various animals charge.

They are beginning to fill the space of the elevator, pushing the people within towards the walls. Rin feels a terrible sting as a small, robotic rat nips her metal foot with its deadly-sharp teeth. Meiko is clinging to Kaito, occasionally lashing out blindly and swatting away swarms of mechanical dogs and cats of all sizes. Kaito is quite efficient, smashing foes under his foot. Luka looks panicked and squashes several small rats. Miku is attacking efficiently with a sword, Rin sees.

Len is snarling in the very back, but his eyes are wide with a fear that Rin has never seen in his eyes during battle as he backs against the marble wall. A hulking dog approaches him, one with cropped, bristly brown hair. It growls and snarls, its black eyes flashing red for a moment. Then it lunges.

Rin hears the gristly sound of bones crunching and she cringes, closing her eyes. Her eyes quickly snap open again when she feels the body of a cat smash against her. She snaps its frail body in half with unconstrained force. She turns and is glad to see the dog which attacked Len dead, despite the blood that wells from its chest like a fountain. Her eyes flick over to Len and she finds him on the floor in the corner, curling up with pain but also unbridled anger. His right arm is bloody and a canine tooth is embedded a millimeter away from his blue eye, cutting upwards in an uppercut into the skin between his eye and eyebrow.

"Len!" she says, forcing her way over. Len looks up at her from his one good eye, the other squeezed tightly shut as a tar-like substance trickles down in bulky rivulets from the wound, deep and black and thick. The red eye is bright crimson in the red lighting, fear dancing across its surface.

Rin hastily helps him up, albeit a little forcefully, and quickly forces her way out of the elevator and into the lobby ahead. Meiko, Kaito, Miku and Luka are already there, trying to fend off larger, more dangerous creatures and conniving scientists. Flowerpots are tipped, the dark black soil from their depths spilling out in sand-like clumps onto the carpeted floor.

She's running, running, trying to get away from the chasing animals when suddenly she feels Len's hand wrenched angrily from hers. She turns quickly.

Len is growling terribly, despite the pain reflected in his eye. A golden dog is tugging at his hand, leaving toothy marks in it. Rin quickly recognizes the golden, long haired animal as Hiro, Gumi's dog.

She struggles to reach Len as he wrenches his hand away. Rin feels sick when she sees one of his fingers hanging limply by strands of wires as Len's third hand lashes out.

He kicks off on roller wheels towards the dog. The knives on his fingers catch into the dog's skin and carry it into the air, causing it to let out a howl of angry pain. It struggles then drops, sending Len a dirty glance before slinking away in search of easier prey. Rin runs over as Len grimaces, swaying slightly.

"Don't pass out," Rin says, desperately. Len nods distantly, black pitch streaming down the right side of his face. "We have to get out of here!"

"My thoughts exactly," Miku says, suddenly beside them. "We don't have a chance against _this_ many people and animals."

Rin nods determinedly and begins running, dragging the disoriented Len with her. Luckily, he's easy to move because of his feet, and they reach Meiko, Kaito, and Luka quickly.

Kaito kicks a large, tiger-like creature and it snarls in pain as it flies several yards back. Meiko turns to a growling dog and kicks it hard as well. Luka is jumping around almost comically, squishing anything beneath her.

"Let's escape!" Miku screams over the din of people in pain and animals roaring and growling and screeching. A cockatoo-like parrot robot dips from overhead and snags some of Miku's hair as she speaks, ripping the strands right out of her head. Miku lets out a yelp of pain. "We're no match for all this. They must of overheard us talking, the scientists, and released _all_ their fighting animals, which are the ones that help the scientists watch robots."

"True," Kaito says, running over. Meiko tumbles over as well, kicking out to anything in her path. Luka comes as well, sweat gleaming on her forehead.

"The good thing about this," Miku shouts, her breath catching in her throat with exhaustion. "Is that it's too loud and messy to really discern anything. It'll be easy to escape."

Sure enough, they break out of the crowd quickly. Only a cat and a rat see them escape as they sprint into a nearby corridor, chasing after them.

"Ugh," Miku says, deliberately squashing the furred body of the rat beneath her foot. Len charges at the cat a bit awkwardly and lopsidedly and rolls it over, feeling the crunch of bones as its skeleton is smashed under his wheels.

"We're safe for now," Miku gasps. The room they're in is devoid of people, only plants and black leather chairs lined up nicely around the room. The back wall is curved inwards like a semicircle and there's a large, flat square window that takes up the whole wall, displaying the stars and comets and the universe beyond outside.

"We're totally in the wrong place," Luka moans, covering her face. "We escaped the opposite way of where the launch wing was."

"Too late now," Miku sighs. "Hopefully we can find some shortcut that leads there. We can't go back to that war field."

"Speaking of which," Kaito says thoughtfully. "We better start running again before anyone notices we're gone and look for us."

"True," Rin says quietly. She changes the subject. "Why is everything lit red?"

"Code Red," Luka explains. "Since they found you, they're basically turning on all the alarm lights to tell the scientists to be super careful."

"Okay," Rin says. She turns to Len, who edges towards her hopefully. She reaches out touch his face, and realizes the tarry substance has near dried like half a mask over his face, very little still dribbling from the wound. She reaches over and eases the tooth out of skin as carefully as she can, but even so he lets out a loud cry of pain before the gleaming white tooth clatters onto the ground.

"What's this on your face?" Rin asks, turning to the case attached to her belt and pulling out a clean wet towel. She swipes it across the tarry substance and it fortunately comes off easily, black and disgusting on the white cloth. She quickly stashes it away as Len shrugs lethargically, his eyes half closed. He looks unsteady on his feet, his eyelids drifting closed before opening again slowly.

"Hey, snap out of it," Rin says, reaching out to touch his face. Len blinks slowly at her and Rin sees Miku frown.

Miku steps over, her boots padding softly on the plush floor. "That black stuff…It might have been the fuel that powers us."

Rin looks up at her in surprise. Miku shrugs. "That would explain why he's not feeling too active right now. Hopefully his body will produce more quickly, though, because we can't afford to have a half-dead robot at this time."

"_Will_ it produce more?" Rin asks nervously. Miku nods thoughtfully.

"It has to, or it would make no sense that we can stay on for periods at a time. Maybe we should let him sleep, and if so, we need to get to a place to stay quickly." Miku mutters quietly. Luka jumps up suddenly, and Rin and Miku turn, wondering what she wants.

"There are some spare rooms in the lounge hotel," she says, smoothing her pale pink hair and glancing at the doorway with paranoia. "All we have to do is ask the guy at the counter for a room."

"_One_ room?" Miku asks nervously. Luka shrugs helplessly.

"The guy will probably wonder why if I ask for more than one room, but I can ask for a big one," Luka says. Miku finally nods in defeat.

"Where is this hotel?" she asks. Luka sighs with some relief.

"We're relatively near it," Luka says. "Let's just hope that news doesn't spread too fast or no one saw me fighting for you. If no one saw, the man at the counter shouldn't know I'm helping you guys."

* * *

When they finally arrive at the hotel, Rin admires the lobby with her prying eyes even as she trembles under Len's weight. Nearly completely inactive, Len is leaning against her, almost asleep. Rin clutches his injured hand nervously, not wanting the wires that connect the dangling finger from the rest of his hand to snap.

The lobby is decorated with a large, crystal chandelier shaped like a flower that has petals that automatically move in and out, occasionally radiating fully outwards and shining rainbow colors from red to orange to yellow to green and beyond from where it's hung on the ceiling. Terraces line the pathway where water tumbles down into colorfully lit pools below, and the floor is made from cold, white marble decorated with gold depictions of strange creatures—huge half lion, half eagle creatures, horses with wings and crows carrying fiery balls in their talons.

"Hide," Luka suggests and her voice is a hushed whisper. Rin nods and stumbles over to the nearest hiding place, glad they're still clad in slightly disguising scientist lab coats. She ducks behind a tall wall where water streams down from the top from seemingly nowhere. Miku, Meiko, and Kaito soon join her.

"Poor Len," Miku sympathizes, patting his golden-brown hair, stained black at the ends from pitchy fuel. Len blinks lethargically at her and then closes his eyes again. Miku looks worriedly at his finger and Rin sighs.

"Stop getting yourself hurt so much," Rin whispers, though she knows Len can't hear her in his near-unconscious state. "You don't have to protect me. Don't get in meaningless battles, Len. It'll mean a lot to me."

At this moment, Luka comes rushing back, her pink hair streaming behind her and a tentative smile on her face. "I…managed to get three rooms. There really aren't many people in the hotels right now, so the man at the counter actually let me."

"Oh, really?" Miku seems relieved, despite that there's six of them. "I guess we could split up into twos…Rin and Len could be together, for one."

Rin blushes, silently wondering why everyone made them stay together (not that she was complaining). Miku continues thinking and Luka butts in.

"Well, each room has two beds," Luka explains. "We don't have to be _that_ worried about it."

"Oh," Miku says, looking even more relieved. "In that case, Meiko and Kaito can have a room and I'll be with Luka."

"Fine with me!" Kaito exclaims, patting Meiko on the back. Rin notices Meiko is smiling slightly at Kaito's antics. Luka nods her consent and Miku nods as well.

"Let's go. Be inconspicuous, guys," Luka says, handing a key to Rin and Kaito. It's nothing more than a clear, lit-up card, but Kaito looks at it with great interest.

They head quickly into the halls of the hotel, avoiding people whenever possible. Luckily, the hotel is mostly deserted and they find their rooms quickly, which are, luckily, consecutive.

"Well, I'm going in to tuck Len in," Rin says, waving at them. Miku nods and then opens her mouth to speak.

"Do you think we should call Neru again?" Miku says, looking questioningly at Rin. "I think she's the only person here who'll know how to bind up Len's ripped finger." At the words, she glances nervously at Len's hand. Len is virtually sleeping while standing lopsidedly, his eyelids batting but remaining closed.

"Yeah, okay," Rin says, pressing the clear key to the compact mechanism on the door. The door clicks and Rin puts her hand on the doorknob. "I'll do that after I look after Len."

"Yeah," Miku says, quickly hustling away into her own room which Luka has already opened.

Rin turns and twists the doorknob, looking into their room. She drags Len in and then sits him down on the bed, going to sit beside him.

"Rin," Len says and his voice is surprisingly calm and sweet. Rin supposes his inertia comes from his lack of energy and fuel, so she pats his head before pulling out some paper to tightly wrap up his finger, sealed shoddily with a piece of tape.

"Go to sleep, Len," she soothes, and Len curls up on the bed obligingly and falls asleep nearly instantly, his breathing falling down to a calm wheezing. Rin watches him for a bit before examining the room.

There are two beds, as Luka has promised, and the room is quite spacious, with a table and three chairs. There is a stand are near the bed.

Rin finds the phone neatly placed there when she realizes she doesn't know Neru's phone number. She pats Len's side reassuringly before standing and grabbing the key. She heads outside.

She hustles over to Kaito and Meiko's room and knocks lightly, causing some crashing and knocking inside. She cringes, but it's not long before Kaito opens the wooden door and peeks outside.

"Oh hi, Rin," Kaito says cheerily. Meiko's voice comes from the back of the room.

"Kaito, you're just going to open the door whenever someone knocks?" Meiko jokes. "We'll be found right away that way."

Kaito shrugs and lets out a joking whine. "But it was just Rin!"

Meiko laughs a little, turning her bandaged head away. Kaito addresses Rin with a curious face.

"What do you need?" he asks, leaning against the doorframe. Rin shrugs with slight embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," Rin squeaks out nervously. "I just realized I don't know Neru's number, and I'm relatively sure Meiko does…"

"Oh yeah, that," Meiko says, standing up and then turning her head uncertainly. Kaito goes over to her to help her and she asks quietly for a piece of paper.

Kaito hands it over and Meiko manages to stumble to the desk and grab a pen. She writes down the number quickly, though her writing is haphazard due to her inability to see. Kaito takes the scrap once she's done and hands it to Rin.

"Just so you won't have to ask any more," Meiko jokes lightly. Rin utters a thank you and smiles faintly before leaving.

"Be careful!" Kaito says after her, and Rin nods her thanks again quickly before heading back into her and Len's room.

Setting the paper down on the table, she picks up the phone, which is clear and fancy and lit with multiple colors like seemingly everything else in the hotel. She slowly dials the number with care, glancing down at the sheet several times before pressing SEND.

She holds the crystalline structure of the phone up to her ear nervously as it dials several times. Finally, she lets out a sigh of relief when she hears Neru's voice on the other side of the line.

"Hello?" Neru asks, her voice questioning.

"Hi, Neru," Rin sighs out, relieved, though she doesn't really know why she feels so tense. "I'm sorry for being such a pest, but this is Rin."

"You're not being a pest," Neru replies quickly, her voice reassuring. "What's the matter, Rin?"

"Um, I know we're totally helpless around here," Rin says, suddenly feeling very vulnerable when she thinks about how many times she's had to consult to Neru for help. "But Len…he's so reckless sometimes, I think, and he's gotten himself beat up _and _worn out. Apparently he lost a lot of fuel so he's resting for now. Could you possibly come over?"

"Oh, okay. Is it okay if I come over tomorrow?" Neru says concernedly. "I don't want to leave my duties at this second or people will wonder where I'm going."

"That's fine," Rin says. "Just try to be fast. We're in the hotel in the lounge."

"Okay," Neru says. "That's cool. You guys have gone a long way. What's your room number?"

"Thanks, and it's 1334," Rin says. Neru says some more things before they say their farewells. Rin exhales shakily before she places the crystal phone back down and sighs, turning to Len. He's still sleeping as peacefully as ever. Feeling tired and exhausted from the chaotic fight earlier, she slides beside Len beneath the covers, the white sheets cloaking them in warmth. Rin cuddles into his unmoving chest and eventually her eyes close.

A few sleepless minutes pass before Rin hears Len shifting a little, his eyes fluttering open.

"Len?" she says in surprise. "Go back to sleep. You need it."

Len blinks several times, clearing his throat and sitting up to gaze at her. He smiles fleetingly for a second. "Where…where are we?"

"We're staying at a hotel for the night," Rin explains hastily. "Go back to bed, please. You've lost a lot of fuel."

Len flexes his fingers, looking down at their sharp ends before lifting his head to look at her again. He shrugs. "Really? I feel okay right now."

"You'll feel tired later. You're losing fuel out of a wound," Rin says. "Go to sleep, Len."

He smiles, crawling over her.

"Not yet," he says, and she succumbs.

* * *

The next day, Rin awakens to the sound of knocking on her door. When her eyes open, she quickly jumps out of bed and smoothes out her messy clothing before walking to the door quietly and carefully. Len is still sleeping peacefully, his eyes resting peacefully closed.

"Who is it?" Rin calls out nervously.

"It's just me, Neru," says the voice from the other side of the wooden door, and Rin opens it. Neru is standing on the other side, tugging at her lab coat nervously.

"Hi," Neru says while twirling her blue pen between her fingers. Her traditional clipboard is held beneath her arm. Rin steps back to give Neru room to step in, and she does so, examining the room with golden eyes.

Rin looks over to Len and sees that he's now sitting up, rubbing at his dull eyes. He yawns hugely and whispers a hello before flopping belly-down onto the crinkled, unmade sheets and yawns again, stretching out his limbs. Rin blushes a little as she observes the messy bed.

"You're awake," Rin says, relieved that he's in working condition. Len smiles and crawls to the edge of the bed on all six of his limbs, limping on his hurt hand. Rin goes over to him and pats the injury, stroking his wrapped up finger with her hand. Len cringes slightly in stinging pain.

"Like Rin said," Neru says and she sighs and walks over. "You need to stop hurting yourself, Len. You make us all worried."

"Sorry," Len says, his ponytail drooping against the back of his head. Neru takes his hand and unwraps Rin's shoddy bandage to examine the damage.

"It's not too bad," Neru murmurs. "Just painful, right?"

Len nods vigorously, turning his head away to hide his expression of pain as Neru prods and moves his finger around. A deep, uncomfortable growl comes from his throat as he struggles to hold back a cry of pain.

"Sorry," Neru says apologetically before moving to his neck and producing a screwdriver. Rin watches as she slips the screwdriver into a tiny screw the color of his skin on his neck and swings open a panel that turns outwards. Rin recognizes this panel to be not unlike the one on her own neck that Neru unscrewed when Len hurt her wrist.

Neru taps at the buttons again on the panel below until Rin sees Len's shoulders relax visibly and he stops being so tense, though his eyes are tired from pain.

"I turned off your sensory nerves in your right arm," Neru explains to Len, her voice unwavering. She reaches over to examine Len's finger again and this time Len doesn't flinch, instead watching with wide eyes as Neru produces the skin mending cream from her coat as well as a roll of heavy, opaque green tape.

"This tape will mend your wires together again temporarily, but it'll hold it together until you body naturally heals it," Neru says in an equally steady tone. She puts out his finger, examining it. Rin cringes at how it hangs from two strands of sinuous wire.

Neru curls tape around the end of each broken one. With this, she pulls out their other ends from within his hand and she connects them efficiently with quickly working fingers.

"There," Neru says under her breath before pushing the finger to the rest of his hand and carefully aligning them. She turns her head slightly towards Rin while still holding Len's hand and finger together. "Rin, could you use some of that cream and spread it around the circumference of the tear in Len's finger?"

"Um, okay," says Rin hesitantly. She's not sure she's going to do it right, but she twists open the cap of the salve and swipes some of the pinkish cream onto her index finger. She begins rubbing it into the visible tear line on Len's wound, swiping it around his whole finger. She looks to Neru questioningly once she's done and Neru nods to signify that it's enough before removing her hands. Surprisingly, Len's finger sticks together and Neru smiles slightly, her eyes slightly weary.

Neru leans forward again and taps buttons repeatedly on the panel on Len's neck, letting the soft sound of beeping that ensues when she presses a button prevail in the room. After a while she swings the door closed again and turns the screw in again, locking it tight with her little screwdriver. Len flexes his fingers nervously as Neru reaches over and takes the cream, twisting the cap back on. She stashes it and the opaque green tape away.

"There," Neru says and her voice is slightly worn down and tired. "It'll be a little stiff and weird for a while, but it'll heal fully in possibly a few days."

"Thank you," Len says sincerely. Rin sits beside him and pats his shoulder. He smiles weakly at her and places a back foot on her lap. Rin laughs slightly and strokes the cold and hard but sensitive metal, and Len smiles in delight. Neru applies some salve to the hole above his eye, sealing it tightly although the fuel has long since stopped dripping. She sits back.

"Well, what are you guys going to do now?" Neru sighs. "Almost every single scientist and guard animal is looking for you, you know. There's a bounty on your heads, and various factions of scientists and guard animals are off to kill you. They patrol everywhere now, really."

"That's… unfortunate." Rin says, looking sadly at the floor. Being on the run hasn't been the most enjoyable thing that's happened in her short life, and it's had its shares of downsides and upsides. Neru speaks out, trying to reassure her.

"Hey, it's not so bad." Neru says. "I know you guys are trying to get to the launch wing, so I managed to get my hands on a rare map from my father."

"Most scientists don't have one of these because no one wants them wandering around the separate wings, but my dad gave me one, thankfully. I highlighted the easiest path to go to get from the Crystal Hotels here to the Launch Wing with a glow ink highlighter so you can see it in the dark too. The lines on the map also glow, just in case. You'll really have to be careful for those factions, though." Neru continues. She hands the highlighted paper to Rin and she takes it in her small hands as Len leans on her tiredly, glancing down at the map as well.

The route Neru suggests they take is highlighted brightly with the greenish yellow hue of highlighters, fat and strangely bright. Rin examines the path. It doesn't actually look too bad and not too long, just curving in strange directions. Out of curiosity, Rin sees how far they've gone. Her eyes scan over the Cell Wing Number 11, which she remembers vaguely to be the cell wing they had occupied. She moves past the small square sector of the quaint town, then to the large West Development Wing, and then to the small forest between one connection between the East and West Development Wing. Her eyes travel through the East Development Wing all the way to the lounge which covers the whole circumference of the circular space settlement, then to the small sector where they and the Crystal Hotels are.

"Thanks," Rin says and grabs the dirtied white backpack and unzips it, carefully sliding the map in along with Neru's picture of them. She swings the backpack over her shoulders, letting it slide awkwardly to the side as the structures on her back protrude out and get in the way in general.

"I guess it's about time to leave," Rin says, walking over to grab the crystalline, lit up key from the desk. Neru nods her consent as Rin helps Len up—he's still a little sleepy, especially from last night. She opens the door and holds it as Neru and Len walk out before letting it go and allowing it to click shut behind her.

Rin walks over to knock on Kaito and Meiko's door, her knuckles rapping against the dark, reddish wood on the door. Before long, Kaito opens the door, his hair ruffled and uncombed.

"Oh, hi," Kaito says. He glances at Neru and smiles with acknowledgment.

"Good to see you, Kaito," Neru addresses, her voice slightly amused. "You've grown since you were fourteen."

"Well, duh!" Kaito exclaims, beaming slightly. Rin smiles at his antics before her face hardens.

"It's time to go, I think." Rin says. "Neru gave us a highlighted map to tell us where to go, but we have to be careful because there are a lot of groups of scientists and guard animals after our heads."

"Okay," Kaito says, his voice calmer and serious now. "Meiko, I think it's time to go," he says, turning his head around.

Meiko comes to the doorframe, looking neater and more well-mannered than Kaito in general. This makes him look around awkwardly.

"Okay," Meiko says, her voice surprisingly understanding despite her eyes being unable to see, her dominant sense broken. Rin nods as well and turns back to Len and Neru, gesturing for Kaito and Meiko to follow. Rin is walking to Luka and Miku's room when she hears rapid footsteps like running.

"Wait!" From behind her comes a voice, and it only takes Rin a moment to register that the voice is Mikuo's. She turns and sees him running towards them, his swallowtail coattails streaming behind him before he breaks and stops right before them, panting visibly.

"I'm sorry," he says quickly between labored breaths. "I followed you, Neru. I wanted to see where you were going."

"Um, it's okay," Neru says and her eyes are wide with surprise. Mikuo glances up at her apologetically, his right eye gleaming from beneath the stark white bandages.

"We're actually going to get Miku and Luka right now," Rin says informatively to Mikuo. "They're in that room." She gestures over to their room's door, which is wooden and deep purplish red like all the other doors down the corridor and beyond. Mikuo's shine even brighter, probably at the idea of seeing Miku, who Rin now understands is almost his sister from what Neru has said.

Rin walks over to Miku and Luka's door and knocks on it. There's some shuffling coming from within, beyond the door, and Miku opens the door, combing her copious amounts greenish blue hair rapidly with a crystalline, glowing comb that Rin can see the hotel has provided.

"Oh hey, guys," Miku says, continuing to comb her hair, her strokes coming up and down and up and down over and over again on her gigantic ponytails that nearly touch the ground. "Hi, Neru." She adds, before her eyes flick over to Mikuo. She hesitates for a moment.

"Hi, Mikuo," she says with a softer voice. "Why'd you come?"

"I followed Neru," Mikuo says, fidgeting slightly when he notices Miku's careful tone, not unlike the padding of a cat. "Um, how are you?"

"Good," This time Miku speaks more confidently, as if she's noticed Mikuo's awkwardness (which she probably did, Rin thinks). "I presume you've come to say it's time to go?"

"Yeah," Rin says and nods again. "By the way, Neru gave us a map so we know how to get to the Launch Wing."

"Really?" Miku says, her eyes shining. "Thanks, Neru."

"No problem," Neru replies curtly, spinning her blue pen between her fingers. Around this time, Luka appears at the door beside Miku, her mature blue eyes scanning the near-crowd before their door.

"Hello," Luka says. "Are we going?" Miku nods, bouncing forward.

"Mikuo and I will go with you guys part of the way," Neru says. "We can't go the whole way—we don't want to be gone long, but have this."

Neru fishes in her pocket for something before finding a small hair clip, white and topped with a piece in the shape of a flower that pulsates out calm, relaxing blue light. She clips it in Rin's hair along with her other clips, letting it spark slightly from her bangs.

"It's not just an accessory clip," Neru explains. "It's actually a little camera-like object that kind of tells me and Mikuo where you are, or if it detects danger. If it does, this machine," Neru takes a white rectangular object out of her other pocket. It has a small red light on top. "This piece will start beeping and flashing red lights, so we'll know and we can come to help if you need it and if the piece senses the battle is dangerous enough."

"Oh, okay," Rin says, glancing upwards to try to see the little piece of technology clipped in her hair. Neru nods briskly while Luka begins fidgeting.

"I've been gone from the Launch Wing a long time," she says at last, a bit nervously. "I think people are probably wondering where I am… I mean, I think I maybe should go soon."

"That's okay," Miku says. "You just have to help us check out of the hotel," she adds, laughing slightly. Luka laughs a little as well and combs a hand through her hair nervously.

"I'll do that, and then I'll head off," Luka says, her voice slightly apologetic. "Here's my number, by the way. When you guys reach the launch wing, just call me and I'll go get you a ship to head off in. I do wish I could just bring you guys with me, but that's probably too dangerous."

"Thanks," Miku says sincerely, taking the small piece of white paper with Luka's number on it that she offers and tucks in a pocket. "I presume you're just going to get through the crowd by going back the way we came?"

Luka nods. "Yeah. It's probably too dangerous for you, though."

"True," Miku agrees before swiping up her own crystal key. Kaito is already dangling the card in between his fingers. "I guess we should head down now."

Luka nods in agreement before they head down to the lobby. All of them but Luka make themselves unseen to the clerk at the counter as Luka hands the three crystal cards to him. After some talking, she heads back to where they're hiding.

"Okay," Luka says. "I'll walk with all of you out of the Crystal Hotel, but after that I've got to go, I think. Be inconspicuous."

Rin nods as they begin walking away. Luckily, the clerk is tapping a black ball-point pen on the table and staring uninterestedly into space and doesn't really notice them. They manage to get out of the lobby and into the lounge again.

"Well, see you guys soon," Luka says, turning around to face them and waving her hand, the blue nail polish on her fingers gleaming in the light.

"Bye," Len pipes up, and all the rest of them mutter their goodbyes as Luka heads off. Her silky, candy-like pink hair shimmers like silk before disappearing around the corner.

"Well, let's go," Neru says after a while. "Mikuo and I will accompany you guys for one day, probably. After that we'll probably head back."

Miku nods at Neru to show she's heard before turning back. "Wow…If you think about it, we're so close to getting away, maybe." She laughs weakly. "I hope so, at least."

With these words, Rin remembers to take out the highlighted map and they head off, following the yellow line.

* * *

After moving about a lot, Neru decides it's time to wrap up the day. Luckily, they haven't met any of the enemy factions, but to be safe they duck in another empty room to rest for the night and lock the door behind them.

"Hey, Len," Rin says, walking over to him. Len is sitting on a chair, looking drowsy, but he awakens quickly at the sound of her voice.

"Hi, Rin," Len says, turning to her with acknowledgment. He gestures towards the chair beside the one he's resting in, and Rin sits down on it.

"I was thinking…" Len says absentmindedly, staring down at the floor a little guiltily. "I mean, everyone thinks I'm so dangerous. The whole reason why we're all in danger is because I'm dangerous. Am I…really that bad?"

"No," Rin says soothingly, though she's secretly surprised that Len feels so worthless. "Don't listen to what those scientists say, okay? It's what we think of you that matters."

She hugs him gently and Len smiles weakly and hugs her back. "I guess."

Rin looks around the room as Len tires, falls asleep and eventually grows limp with his arms around her. Meiko and Kaito are already sleeping peacefully, curled up on chairs, and Neru, Mikuo, and Miku are sitting in the corner of the room, talking in hushed voices about things that Rin has to strain to hear.

"Why do you always have those bandages on your face?" Rin hears Miku ask Mikuo, her voice concerned and much nicer than it had been so many days or weeks ago. Once again, Rin can't recall how long they've been on the run.

Mikuo shrugs, subconsciously touching the bandages on his face with two fingers. "The radiation from the bomb mutilated the side of my face that was turned towards the hypocenter. It also affected the rest of my face, but the doctors were able to heal the part that wasn't as damaged." Mikuo shrugs again and Neru pats his shoulder reassuringly.

"Maybe we should just go to sleep now. Rin, Len, Meiko, and Kaito are already doing so," Neru says. Miku nods her agreement and they disperse, filing into chairs to sleep.

Rin thinks she should probably sleep as well. She rests her head on Len's shoulder before falling into dreamless sleep.

* * *

"Rin! Wake up, wake _up!"_ Neru is shaking Rin with unconstrained force, and Rin's eyes open slightly to see Neru's wild, concerned face.

"W… What?" Rin says slowly. Her mind is still groggy from sleepiness. Neru frowns, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Rin, a faction of guard animals have broken into here," Neru explains hastily, as if there's no time to waste. Rin's eyes widen and her heart beats rapidly in her chest in welling fear. "You've got to help us!"

"Um, okay," Rin says, stumbling up clumsily. Neru hands her the sleek gun from the white backpack and Rin fumbles with it in her hand before eventually looking up to see what they're facing. Her stomach twists at the sight.

There are hordes of ferocious chimeras made from metal and flesh, all of them looking wild. They don't hesitate to strike, having recognized the escaped robots. Len is slicing many of them to bits, leaving nasty splashes and puddles of blood on the walls and floor. Miku is doing the same with her worn-down sword, and Rin feels sick when she sees blood dripping down the length of the sword to the hilt and reddening Miku's tightened hands. She sees Miku grimace at the warm touch of the blood but carry on fighting.

Taking a gasp for air, Rin jumps into the fray as well, cocking the laser-based gun and shooting it at several animals. Luckily, the bullets of laser-hot energy only cause small sprays of blood to fly out and Rin remains relatively clean while felling several foes.

Neru comes in with a long, needled stick that she stabs into several of the animals. The animals who are touched by the stick fall, but Rin quickly realizes they aren't dead but only tranquilized.

"There's still a lot left," gasps Kaito, suddenly beside Rin. He wields an almost laughable small knife, but it proves effective when a half-mechanical, half-biological bird dives down upon him, screaming, its fake red eyes gleaming, and he swipes it cleanly through its breast and it falls. Blood drips from its feathered chest.

"Is Meiko okay?" Rin asks between pants. Kaito nods and gestures with a flick of his head to where Meiko is staying, wisely staying still. She occasionally lashes out when any guard animals near and surprisingly doesn't miss more than half of the time. Rin can trust that her other senses are quite sharp and turns back to shoot a rabid cat with mangy fur splotched with sheets of metal foil. It falls at her feet and stops vibrating, signifying that its mechanical processes have stopped.

"This is so… I don't know how to describe it, frustrating," Rin groans. "How did they get in anyway?"

"They broke down the door," Kaito sighs, explaining in a tired voice as he kicks a small, charging dog away. "I guess some of them have X-ray vision or something like that and sensed us inside."

Rin lets out a contemplative noise of understanding and continues fighting. Eventually the remaining, more cowardly guard animals begin leaving, such as small dogs, some cats, and several of the rats. They squeak, yelp, and meow as they leave.

She shakes her head quickly, trying not to get distracted from the fight as she shoots at the last retreating dog and it falls limply onto the floor. Len rolls over to her and clutches her hand with his unstained one. Thankfully, it is mostly devoid of blood, save a sew specks and trickles. He smiles at her weakly even as he pants from the exertion of fighting.

Neru walks over as well, also looking quite tired. She takes the stick and lets it retract in, leaving nothing but a small baton that she stashes in one of her pockets.

"That was tiring," she says between heavy breaths. She scans the room with a critical eye and sighs. "There's blood everywhere. The scientists will be able to tell we were here, if not just because the faction of guard animals probably sent an alarm call back to the leader of whoever's spearheading this search. Probably Gumi. She and Hiro are absolutely _ferocious._"

"We better go," Mikuo agrees, stashing his sword into its sheath. It looks almost like Miku's, yet its blade is made from a newer, synthesized metal that has a pearly, blue sheen in the light, iridescent and almost like the surface of a bubble. "Me and Neru, I mean. Back to Cell Wing Eleven. And you guys better get going on the highlighted path Neru gave you. Most likely another faction of reinforcements is going to come around here."

"True," Rin says, going over to the bag to put away the laser gun. "We'll go then, I guess."

Neru nods and Rin steps forward, trying to ignore the blood that laps at her bare feet as she walks through the disgusting, warm puddles. Once she goes past the doorframe that now lacks a door to fit in it, instinctively water pools out of the pores of her legs and feet and washes them clean from the splashes of blood. Len follows her, his four rolling feet cutting through the blood like four swans, making the watery, red liquid part and make rippling wings around his feet. Miku skips over it as well as she can, but her feet still land in at least one puddle of the stuff and she cringes in disgust.

Mikuo and Neru are careful as well, not wanting to get questionable blood on their feet, and Kaito leads Meiko carefully through.

"Here," Rin says, swiping down their feet with towels to clean them off. Neru nods her thanks quickly.

"I guess it's time to part," Neru says. "But we'll be there if you ever get in trouble."

"Yeah," Miku says, reaching out to touch Neru's hand. "You've been a good friend to all of us, Neru. I admit sometimes I've been frustrated with you, but, you know, people always have those kinds of moments with friends." Miku laughs.

"Yeah," Neru says, her eyes showing immense gratitude. "I'm hoping I can catch you guys at the launch wing when you're about to leave, judging through that clip Rin has. Until then…"

She waves and Mikuo waves, and all of them wave back. When they're gone, Miku turns determinedly to the others.

"Let's go!" she says, just like always.


	10. Chapter 10

_hello. again. here is the next chapter of this hilarious story. this one's really long! it's almost over now, just three more chapters! _

_also i uploaded a different story on ffn. which is marginally newer. so yeah it's better even though its hilarious chick lit. also yeah. sorry for rambling. thanks for the reviews also since i never say stuff like that :(_

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.Chapter10

"How long have we been going?" Rin asks softly to Len as they stream through the halls. They've already encountered a few small groups of guard animals, some more ferocious than others, but none of them have been real challenges yet. Len flicks his eyes towards her and then contemplates for a while.

"On the map," Len says, pulling it out even as they continue running. Len is in the front and has the map due to his seemingly endless energy. Len points at a section of the highlighted route. "We're right about there."

Rin exhales through her nose in slight impatience. With the rate they're going, she thinks, it'll take just about eternity to reach the launch wing. Len reassures her with a surprisingly calm voice.

"We're about a sixth through already," he promises and his voice is strong despite the moving air that rushes by Rin's ears as she runs. "Just be patient, Rin. It hasn't even been a day yet."

Len laughs softly and takes her hand as they run and the warmth of his hand tingles in hers.

"We'll always be together, right?" He says, his voice ringing through the halls. Rin smiles back at him and squeezes his hand.

"Yeah," she says, looking forward. "Always."

After a while of running and curving in the halls, Len begins slowing to a stop, examining the map with interest.

"Do we go right now?" Len says and his pace is slow. Rin glances at the map, the highlighted path, and then forward at the intersection they're at.

"Yeah, I think so," she says, and Len nods curtly and turns right. They break into a run again, Len whipping his head back and forth and then down at the map to make sure constantly that they're not going the wrong way.

Rin is running when her pointed foot hits something bristly and small on the ground. Her eyes instinctively flick downwards and she sees a small, grayish blue rat on the ground, its red eyes glimmering. Rin quickly recognizes the red eyes and realizes that it's a guard animal.

She's about to squash it under the weight of her foot when it opens its mouth, its shiny, mechanical white teeth glimmering in the light, and _screams._

It's like a siren, loud and wailing, and Rin stumbles back in surprise. Seeing its chance, it clambers away and hangs to the wall with curved claws, away from Rin's heavy foot, screaming all the while. Miku gasps from behind Rin.

"I think it's a siren animal," Miku says, her face filled with fear. "They usually scout ahead of groups, and if they hear or see whoever they're tracking they let out a loud, piercing siren so the group can run up and catch who they're tracking."

Kaito pales and Meiko clutches his arm nervously, looking alert. "I don't have a good feeling about this."

Sure enough, the loud, purposeful clacking of approaching scientists' shoes comes, and Len begins to back away, his whimpers melting into deep growls. Miku's eyes are wild.

"We need to run!" she says in a fervent, hushed whisper. Rin turns to her nervously.

"They'll probably find us anyway," Len says quietly. Miku sighs and nods her agreement with a lowered head as the scientists appear.

In the front is Gumi, who regards them with a quick up-down with her eyes. Her golden dog, Hiro, is at her side like always, its golden tail raised high into the air and swishing back and forth, cutting the still air into pieces. Its harsh, blue eyes shine with a blend of emotions that Rin can't comprehend, like the swirls on the surface of rippling water.

"You silly, silly robots," Gumi sighs, her voice soft but dangerous. "You've come so far, I almost want to let you go."

Gumi smiles subtly and twirls a small baton in her hands; one that Rin recognizes is like the one Neru had. "But I can't. Orders from the boss, you know."

With these words, she does a subtle, special movement by twisting her index finger and middle finger and Rin barely has any time to think when Hiro lunges, its pale golden hair streaming behind it. Rin screams and tumbles away, letting the ferocious dog land onto the metal ground hard on all four paws. Its pure-white claws glimmer in the light menacingly, huge and unnatural like teeth as it barrels forward again, aiming at her.

Rin gropes into the white backpack on her back desperately, and at last her hands feel the sleek metal of the gun. She whips it out, but Hiro is already upon her, growling and attacking her legs. Rin kicks out and the dog lunges again, its large and heavy paws slamming against Rin's chest and knocking her to the ground.

Rin finds herself struggling to cock the gun in her hands as the dog begins attempting to rip out her throat. Her hands are clumsy and she can't see what she's doing, so eventually she gives up, trying to conquer the ferocious dog by kicking it away.

Suddenly the weight is taken off her chest and she sits up abruptly, knowing in her gut why. Sure enough, Len is struggling to fight off Hiro, his third hand driving its knife-like fingers into the dog's golden pelt. The dog nearly roars, its blue, gleaming eyes wild and flaring with light. Len's pupils thin and slit in concentration, his red iris dilating slightly.

"Don't get yourself hurt again," Rin says desperately, though she begins to wonder if Len can hear her over the din of the dog's snarls and roars and his own growls. She raises her voice slightly. "You've already got yourself hurt too much thanks to that dog."

Len flicks his ponytail to show he's heard despite that he doesn't stop struggling with the dog, and Rin glances down at the sleek, laser gun. She cocks it and aims.

She pulls the trigger and the golden, bright laser bullet flies out so quick that Rin can barely follow it with her eyes. It burns into Hiro's coat and the dog jerks forward, its pelt ripping as it forces its way away from where Len has his fingers hooked into its skin. It snarls in pain, flicking its head angrily in attempt to glance at the burning hole in its side.

The smell of burning skin and thin layers of flesh prevails in the air for a little, followed by the overwhelming groan of the melting metal within the dog's body.

In defeat, Hiro yelps one last time before flopping down on the floor, closing its eyes. Rin sees that it's not dead yet, simply resting, but she has greater worries at the moment than the unconscious machine. She turns and fires at a scientist blindly who threatens to sneak up on her and she hears the yell of pain at the scientist receives one of the high voltage bullets to his arm. Once again, Rin can smell the rank, disgusting odor of burning flesh and she turns away, finding it hard to fight humans despite what they've done to them.

Miku doesn't seem to be hesitating at all. The scientists scatter in fear at her sword that threatens to cut through their flesh like a knife through butter.

Meiko is once again standing to the side, and Rin can practically feel her helplessness radiating from her skin. She looks around awkwardly, as if wanting to help, but she's backed against the wall to keep away unwanted attention.

"Rin," says a familiar voice that Rin's recognizes as Len's right by her ear, and she turns, looking at him nervously. He doesn't appear to have any large wounds, though his hands and arms are spattered with blood. Rin's stomach twists in disgust. "I…I think we have to run. We can't go on like this, and besides…"

Rin sees Len's hesitation and realizes he doesn't exactly want to spill the blood of the scientists either, despite the rash, uncontrolled spasms of killing Rin knows he has in him, despite it all. Rin nods quickly in understanding. "Let's get Miku, Kaito, and Meiko and _run."_

"Run?" Miku say and her eyes are weary as she suddenly near-materializes besides Rin.

"We've been running, running, from _everything._ I can't stand it."

But her eyes soften with understanding. "I know, though. We have no choice."

And with these words, she sprints, holding her deadly-sharp sword in front of her and parting the sea of guard robots and scientists easily. Rin follows quickly, her gun cocked and pointing at the animals and people dangerously. Len, Kaito, and Meiko stream behind her as they run for their lives.

"Cowards," she hears Gumi hiss at the scientists. "All of you, cowards." Then Rin hears her voice soften as she calms slightly midsentence. "But I understand. You all weren't paid to fight dangerous robots. Go back home, all of you. Gakupo and I will scout ahead with more guard animals and get those merciless robots."

Rin stops listening and continues running forward. She realizes Gumi isn't so bad to the scientists, and she could possibly be kind, but that seems like the last thing she wants to be to the runaway robots. Rin runs harder, faster, when she hears pursuing footsteps.

The footsteps eventually fade, but they go on running for a while before Miku begins slowing down, forcing the stream of robots behind her to decelerate as well.

"Gumi and Gakupo probably have gone to get reinforcements," Miku says quietly, twisting a strand of greenish blue hair between her fingers. Rin trembles, her limbs tired from running.

"Who's this Gakupo?" Rin asks. His name, in the context everyone has been putting it in, doesn't make him sound like a friend, and Miku proves it with her next words.

"Gumi and Gakupo," she says coldly. "They used to show me around the laboratory because they were ever so kind to me, when I was still _special._ Gumi leads the West Development Wing and Gakupo leads the East Development Wing, though they didn't at the time when I first met them. They've got a firm and high position in the company, though not as high and not as enigmatic as Neru's father."

"Oh," Rin says, finding nothing else to say. Miku shrugs and continues walking forward lethargically.

"Shouldn't we run?" Len says in a small voice that echoes around, making him cringe. "I mean…"

"None of you killed any scientists, right?" Miku suddenly says and her voice is harsh. Rin shakes her head quickly and she sees Len, Kaito, and Meiko do the same.

"Good," Miku says. "We… don't want to kill any of the scientists, because that would make us as low as them."

Rin nods to show she's understood, and Miku begins picking up her pace slightly.

"We should run," she says at last, finally addressing Len. She sighs again and pushes back a strand of hair. "You're right, I know. It's just… things have changed since we first started being on the run. I… I admit there were times I just wanted to give up…"

Miku pauses. "But I think we can make it. Let's just persevere." She turns to Len, and Rin sees the sparks are back in her eyes, dancing like scattered fireflies. "Len, where are we going next on the map?"

Len reaches over into his pocket and produces a crumpled heap of white paper. He looks up in embarrassment. "I… had to crumple it quickly when the scientists attacked us."

"It's okay," Miku reassures hurriedly, gesturing for Len to hurry and look. Len squeaks out a "oh, right" and spreads out the paper. There are creases dancing across it like the strands of a haphazard spider's web, but Miku doesn't mind as she looks over Len's shoulder. Rin steps over and does so as well.

"We're here, I think," Len says, pointing at a segment of the highlighted route. "We were there," he pauses to point at a room a little down. "…And we ran up here." His finger moves back to its starting point and Miku nods in agreement.

"Thank god we're still on the route," Rin says, laughing weakly. "If we had to backtrack that wouldn't be good."

"Yeah," Miku says, her greenish blue eyes shining. "There's a lot of things be thankful for, but right now we've just got to _move."_

Rin nods in understanding and Len folds up the paper carefully, clutching it in his hands. Rin worries that it will be bloodstained, but she notices Len's hands are relatively clean, having wiped them quickly on his white shirt as Rin can see from the brown, half dried stains on the white but dirtied fabric of his shirt.

"Shall we run?" Miku says, finally remembering to place her sword into its sheath, which is clipped to her green, patterned belt. Her belt is decorated by zigzags dividing the belt into clean triangles of green and a darker shade of the same color.

"Yeah, but I could do with some ice cream right now," Kaito says, in a dull voice that makes all of them laugh.

"Anyway," Miku says, patting the pouting Kaito on the back. "We better go now."

She heads forward, her speed moving up to a trot. Rin files behind her, forming a line that starts with Miku, Rin, Len, Meiko, and then Kaito. They move quickly for a while, and Rin begins to relax after moments of simply running and listening to the sound of Len's soft voice as he directs them where to go.

All at once, Miku stops. She seems to be in lighter spirits now, but she mutters a quiet warning. "There's a small faction of three guard animals ahead. Watch out, even though they shouldn't be _too _hard to eliminate."

"Hmm," Len says, folding the map carefully again and stashing it away. "I'm ready to fight them."

"I want ice cream," Kaito says, groaning.

The three guard animals approach slowly, to Rin's surprise. They don't charge forward unexpectedly or lunge or growl—they come slowly, calmly, and silently. Somehow, it makes Rin feel even more uncomfortable and her stomach twists.

As if reading her mind and trying to comfort her, Len reaches out and intertwines his fingers with hers, brushing his lips over her cheek a little hesitantly before flicking outwards the fingers of his left hand, letting the disproportionally long, spindly fingers stretch out before narrowing together into their trademark drill, the serrated edge that curves around its circumference glimmering in the light dangerously.

The three animals approach, ever closer, before stopping completely before them. One of them is a large dog, the other a smaller one of the same species, and a proud, sleek-furred cat.

Rin glances at them awkwardly as they stare back blankly, unseeingly, their red, beady eyes blinking on and off, on and off, never stopping. Rin stares for a while and they do nothing.

"Len?" Rin asks uncertainly. Len looks at them with genuine interest and suddenly his eyes widen as they simultaneously open their mouths and let out a single, piercing _BEEP_ that permeates the silence of the room.

"Rin!" he near screams, jumping in front of her and hugging her for a reason Rin cannot comprehend. She barely has time to call out his name questioningly when there's an earsplitting sound of shattering glass and metal and the sound of combustion.

Rin first feels a wild wave of searing heat, and then pain courses through her body as the heat increases and increases, burning into her skin. She feels Len grow limp, the grip of his arms loosening around her.

For a while heat blusters around her, shattering the cool air into tiny smithereens, and she feels the pain of burns on her skin.

At last the hot, burning air cools, and Rin dares to open her eyes. Len is resting weakly against her, his eye blinking rapidly. His skin is blotched with angry burns, and the tips of his hair are blackened, though mostly heat resistant, and his ponytail twitches weakly.

"Len?" she manages squeakily. Len glances at her and pushes off her, stumbling back slightly. The metal parts of his body are mostly fine and unburned, but his clothes and synthesized, soft skin are marred in several places. Len turns to her, his eye still blinking quickly as if attempting to get something out of his eye.

"It's not too bad," he mumbles. "Just some burns. Could I have the skin salve?"

"Um, okay," Rin says, bending down and placing the backpack on the floor. She notices the three guard animals from before are nowhere in sight. After some rummaging in the pack, she pulls out the container of salve and opens it, slathering her fingers in its cool, pink cream and applying it to the burns on Len's arms and back. After she's applied the salve to all the burns she can see, she sits back, screws back on the top of the container, and places it back into the backpack, zipping it up. "What was that?" she asks at last.

"Bombs," Miku says, approaching. Her body seems very heat resistant and burns only crinkle and burn her clothes slightly, but Rin supposes it's from being a culinary robot and working around fires a lot. "Those three guard animals were bombs, not real ones. Luckily, the bombs weren't very strong ones. I suppose they couldn't afford to make too many strong bomb animals."

"Ow," Kaito says from where he's cowering in the corner. He and Meiko are mostly unscarred as well, save some burns, probably from lagging in the back. "That's not the kind of ice cream I wanted."

"Yeah," Rin mumbles, feeling a little annoyed that she and Len are the only ones who are really hurt. She remembers to whip out the salve again and begins applying it to her burns as well quickly, letting the smooth, pink cream blend into her skin and cool and cover the blemishes where she's been burned. Miku sighs and bends down next to her, as if sensing Rin's frustration.

"I'm sorry, Rin," she says, patting Rin's arm. "I'm sorry you and Len were hurt the most in that explosion. You're lucky Len recognized them as bomb animals relatively quickly and protected you."

"Yeah," Rin mumbles, reaching out to take Len's hand. Len croons hoarsely at her touch, shaking his head to let the burned tips of his hair crumple to ashes and fall down from his head. His ponytail flaps up and down as he tests it out to make sure it's still working before he seems content, stroking the ground with his four feet. He appears to be attempting to hide any remaining pain that the cream hasn't relieved (and Rin's sure it's plenty, considering that the cream heals their skin but barely removes the pain).

"We'd better go on and persevere," Miku manages, standing up awkwardly. "We can't call Neru for help or anything…" She glances at Rin, as if asking for her approval.

"Yeah, okay," Rin says, standing. She helps pull Len up as well as he stumbles, doubling over in pain. He looks at her thankfully as she brushes his clothes nervously, allowing the ashes to fly off.

"You need new clothes," Rin says nervously, blushing despite it all. Len glances at her awkwardly, instinctively clutching his shirt to himself, the back of the white fabric gray and marred, holes gaping on its clean weave of no longer white thread. His black pants are also marred, but only small holes like slightly widened pinpricks pattern the bottom of the legs (thankfully, Rin thinks).

They continue on in mostly silence, and Miku walks slowly to respect the fact that Rin and Len are most likely in greater pain than the rest of them. Instead of his usually quick pace, Len limps behind and Rin skirts by his side carefully, catching him in the moments where he falls. Eventually Meiko and Kaito even get ahead of them, Kaito glancing back at them, his blue eyes gleaming nervously as they fall behind.

Eventually Len begins moaning in pain at each step, his legs shaking to keep himself up. Rin pats his back, but she really isn't sure he can go on for much longer.

As if proving her thoughts, it isn't long before Len collapses on the floor. Only then does Rin realize the extents of his burns as he clutches the burned skin on his arms and legs despite the wounds being invisible due to the salve. Rin bounds back to where he's stopped and bends down next to him, running her fingers over his skin, watching where he cringes at her touch to tell where his burns are.

Miku, Kaito, and Meiko approach, looking down at them with concern. Miku glances around nervously, as if watching for anyone who approaches. Meiko steps forward awkwardly.

"Rin?" Meiko asks questioningly, tilting her head uncertainly. "Do you think you have the strength to carry him…? I mean, you'd probably want yourself to, not Miku or something."

"Carry… him?" Rin asks incredulously, glancing at where Len has curled up on the floor, his eyes closed tensely and his limbs shaking. Meiko nods and Rin looks up at her, confusion written across her features. "Isn't he too _heavy?"_

"You can manage," Meiko assures. "I'm under the impression that he isn't too heavy—for storing and moving purposes, you know. He also gets heavier during battle, so he doesn't get knocked off his feet too easily using some weird technology I don't understand."

"How do you know this?" Rin asks, tilting her head as she asks. Meiko shrugs, letting her red-clad shoulders rise and fall.

"When you two were being developed, the scientists talked about you a lot. The newest technology you used, how efficient you were going to be… they also seemed pretty hyped about the new type of robot Len was and is," Meiko says. Rin nods slowly and then nods faster to show her understanding before walking up to Len a little hesitantly as he convulses and twitches slightly on the floor when spasms of pain come from his burns.

"Hey, Len?" Rin says, prodding him gently and lifting his lowered chin. His eyes are pained as he looks back at her, and the whites of his eyes are pinkish red. "Meiko thinks I should carry you. Are you okay with that?"

Len coughs hoarsely and nods his consent and Rin picks up his arms carefully, watching him cringe carefully when she touches one of his unseen burns.

She takes his arms and wraps them around her neck, the feverish heat of the metal on his arms touching her neck hotly, scalding her skin. Rin grimaces and stands the pain until it subsides before she hooks her arms under the crook of his first set of legs. His back legs wrap around her weakly, the metal as feverish as ever.

"We'll be okay," Rin assures, surprised at how light he is.

"Thanks, Rin," Len whispers, his voice cracking and squeaking at seemingly every opportune moment. Rin nods to show she's heard and Len hugs her tighter, pressing his hot body against hers. She cringes, her own burns painful. She gently strokes his hand before looking up at the others, signaling that she's ready to go wherever they have to.

"Well, let's hurry," Meiko says, turning to go and clinging to Kaito's arm for guidance, but Miku doesn't move and doesn't turn to face forward, either. Her eyes are glued forward towards something behind Rin.

It's then that Rin notices the fear dancing in her wide eyes.

"It's Gumi and Gakupo," she croaks out, her voice a barely audible whisper. Rin's eyes widen as well and she turns around clumsily, making Len dig his fingernails into her shoulders as he struggles to stay near her without falling off.

Rin sees Gumi approaching, recognizing her form from a distance by her bright, saturated green hair and her characteristic red tinted goggles always pulled onto her forehead. Besides her stands a man Rin does not recognize. His hair is ever so long, tied together into a long, elegant, albeit strange ponytail, his violet hair glimmering almost malignantly. Around the two is a whole army of animals, all of them walking in perfect synchronicity like well trained soldiers.

"Oh, _no,"_ Rin mutters and she glances at Miku questioningly, asking with her eyes what they are to do. Miku doesn't move and instead stares forward, and Rin realizes that running won't help—the guard animals are too fast and too lethal when the army is so close.

In the frightening silence, save the slavering, growling, and roaring of the approaching army, Len lets out a deep, dangerous growl and clings to Rin desperately, his eyes fixated forward blearily.

"Stop right there," Gumi hisses as her form approaches, and Rin sees the demon dog, Hiro, by her side, as always. Gakupo is twirling one of his lilac tresses almost with an air of superior _boredom._

"Surround them. End command," Gakupo says smoothly, his voice rich and deep. Still moving in perfect synchronicity, the large, dangerous guard animals surround them, growling from deep within their chests. Rin sees that the guard animals this time don't include small rats, dogs, and cats, but rather lizard-like, draconic creatures and disproportionally large dogs. There are even strange, mechanical tigers, and to Rin's horror, lions. The lions aren't as big as the one she and Len encountered in the virtual forest, but are virtually smaller clones of the same model. Miku is cursing under her breath and Len clings to Rin, his noises of discomfort increasing in volume. Eventually he pushes away her, landing on the floor with a hard thud and crumpling there, struggling to get up but failing.

"Len?" Rin asks, beginning to panic slightly as the guard animals edge closer, obviously impatient for either Gumi or Gakupo's orders. "I know you want to fight, but you're in no condition to do so!"

"I…" Len hesitates for a second before crumpling again in defeat. "I… guess so. I don't like being so useless."

"You're not useless," Rin says quickly, whipping out her gun as she speaks. She sees Miku unsheathing her sword and poising it up high threateningly and Kaito pulling out his knife. "You've done far enough already."

Len doesn't reply as Gakupo and Gumi step forward, the guard animals parting slightly to allow them into the circle. Gakupo smiles coldly, and Rin is suddenly far more afraid of this man than she ever has been of Gumi. His icily grinning lips part to speak words Rin never wants to hear.

"Attack. End command."

The guard animals leap forward. Rin screams.

The first shot from her gun embeds itself into the glimmering, white chest of a dragon. It roars in pain, flaring out its metal wings and charging at her after stumbling back a few steps. Rin pulls the trigger several times and the laser bullets embed themselves into the machine creature's face before it falls back, smoldering.

Rin turns to shoot more of the animals, but reinforcements seem to come in every second. The surrounding circle has broken apart in the wild fighting and Rin swipes Len up quickly in panic, causing him to scream in pain, but Rin has no time to check on him. She falls near where Miku, Kaito, and Meiko are clustered, dragging the stumbling, moaning Len with her. Now that they're all in a cluster together, they begin backing away down the hall through a hole in the circle of guard animals.

They're pushed all the way down the hall by the attacking robots until they fall out of the hall into a wide, square room, large enough to fit several robots and scientists. Halls radiate out from the room like legs.

Rin sets Len down on the floor beside her quickly and not at all gently—she doesn't have the time or capacity—and shoots at several advancing guard animals as they begin cornering her. With a jolt of fear, suddenly Rin realizes Miku, Kaito, and Meiko are no longer beside her and she's trapped in a ring of guard animals alone.

They advance, snarling, slavering, roaring. A thin wreath of flame shoots out of a dragon's curved, metal nostril and narrowly misses roasting the skin on the top of her arm. A tiger roars and unsheathes and sheaths its claws repeatedly in challenging malice.

Rin at first tries to retaliate, shooting several bullets at the approaching animals, but as a small group working together they dodge most of the bullets easily, freakishly human sneers on their robotic animal faces. Whenever one falls, another seems to come to corner her as the move closer and closer.

"Miku? Kaito?" Rin asks weakly when she realizes she can find no escape other than from outside help. She hears no response by the faraway clattering of a sword against metal.

The animals get nearer and nearer, their faces distorting in Rin's fading vision. She panics as she hears the whooshing of wind as a robot leaps forward.

The next thing she feels is indescribable pain jolting her body as a huge, clawed paw slams into her chest and her form gives way, the paw plunging into her inner workings.

The paw never makes it all the way through her when there's an unearthly shriek like an eagle gone crazy, wild roaring, and the sound of thrashing. Rin struggles up—the pain is coursing through her body crazily and she's surprised she isn't unconscious, though she supposes it's because the wound isn't as deep as Len's was.

She looks up and everything stops.

Len is standing as if he were never burned but Rin's heart shatters as soon as she sees him. His red iris has completely dilated, leaving no whites, and his pupils are slit into narrow lines, his face contorted into an expression that Rin doesn't want to understand. In complete ribbons and tatters, the body of the tiger guard animal is flayed at his feet.

"Don't even _touch_ Rin," Len says quietly, but audibly enough for Rin to hear, his voice distorted and cold, burbling out of control for moments at a time. Then Len lets out a bloodcurdling roar filled with an emotion Rin cannot comprehend.

His whole body shudders before shattering.

From his back comes a huge, frightening, mechanical hand, spurting out of his skin along with several knives. Rin begins backing away in unconstrained fear as Len screams in a voice that is half natural, half unnatural, and at last Rin sees the metal panel that the scientists put on his back so long ago fall away. A huge, barbed and thick tentacle of machinery falls out, curving between his legs almost like a tail.

"Len?" she asks fearfully, but Len ignores her, not even showing at all that he's heard, beginning to rip any machine or guard animal nearby into shreds. Rin is shaking uncontrollably—she doesn't understand Len's outburst.

She backs against the wall, watching him rip the creatures to tatters from his hands in front and behind. As Len breaks apart the sea of now retreating guard animals, she sees Miku, Meiko, and Kaito watching with wide eyes as well.

The guard animals are falling, and she sees Gumi, Gakupo, and Hiro retreating, their faces actually afraid before retreating into the shadows. Len snarls at their retreating backs and is about to give chase when the last guard animal, a dragon, distracts him and he rips it to shreds.

All the animal robots are demolished, yet Rin doesn't feel any satisfaction as Len continues snarling at nothing, panting and surrounded by fallen metal shreds. Miku, Kaito, and Meiko are all on different sides of the room, watching in silent apprehension.

"Hey, Len?" she asks at last, attempting to hide the fear that slathers her voice as Len stands there, various knives on his back whipping through the air challengingly. At the noise, Len turns and stares at her for a while, his pupils still slit.

"Len?" she asks again, and Len looks at her with unchanging eyes. Then a deep, dangerous growl comes from deep within his chest.

Rin doesn't have time to scream when Len falls upon her, pinning her to the wall with his drill hand and his third, knifed hand. She screams as the knives plunge into her soft skin and the serrated edge of the fingers on his left hand rips her skin in thin cuts. His breath is feverish and warm as it curls in her ear while he snarls, his eyes filled with empty recognition.

"Len?" Rin repeats for the umpteenth time and she feels tears pricking her eyes as Len simply growls at her, pressing his left hand to her chest and getting ready to rip her already exposed insides to shreds. Her throat tightens as she chokes back a sob. "Why are you doing this?"

Len blinks and growls, his left hand's fingers snapping into a drill and pressing hard against her machinery within. Rin bites her lip until it bleeds to hold back an impending scream. The flower-shaped clip on her bangs suddenly shines a constant, deep red and begins beeping quickly in succession, loudly.

"It's me, Rin," Rin says weakly, raising her voice in panic and hysteria. Len's growl stops abruptly.

"R-rin? Rin?" he says, his voice growing more natural and clarifying slightly before withdrawing his hand, his eyes wide as he struggles to remember something he can't quite capture. "Rin?"

In this moment of hesitation, suddenly Len is wrenched away, his weight taken off her. Rin struggles up in surprise and sees Gumi and Gakupo grabbing onto Len's arms, dragging him away as Hiro guards from below. The two scientists are wearing full body, metal suits.

Rin's heart plummets when she sees a whole new armada of huge guard animals approaching quickly on running legs. The guard animals approach closer and closer, their claws and teeth glittering like knives from seemingly all directions.

Len begins screaming, his voice now completely normal again as he begins letting out a few, painful sobs. "Rin! Rin, I—! Help me, please—!"

As he speaks, his voice melts back into insane hysteria and he growls and screams, his pupils slitting. His metal appendages swing and reach out towards Rin dangerously and slap Gumi and Gakupo in the faces. The knives clatter off their metal face masks uselessly and Len screams and thrashes.

"_Run!" _suddenly a voice calls fervently into Rin's ear, grabbing her hand and sprinting off. Rin struggles to keep up the pace despite the pain in her chest, not knowing who the perpetrator is. Rin glances around as the person pulls her into a hall and, despite the blurred world around her, she sees Miku, Meiko, and Kaito gather around her, running as well.

Rin glances forward and her eyes have to adjust and squint to stop the wind from getting into them and she recognizes blonde hair.

"Neru?" Rin asks, incredulous, until she remembers the clip in her hair and how it would alert Neru of any danger. Soon enough she also sees Mikuo running with them, hanging close to Miku.

"Yeah?" Neru says, raising her voice above the rushing wind. Rin fights the urge to break away from Neru, knowing the guard animals are hot on their trail and she'd probably be ripped to shreds if she ran off.

"But… _Len…"_ Rin says, and just thinking about it cloaks her voice in despair and she bites her lip. Neru flicks her head towards Rin to show she's addressing her.

"I'm really sorry…" Neru says, her voice barely audible, but Rin can sense overwhelming despair coating her voice. "I… I don't know if there's anything we can do."

"Judging from the state he was in," Neru sighs. "It's what the scientists were afraid he would do. He's trained to react strongly to acts of violence against his "owner" in order to protect them. While put under extreme stress, such as how he feels useless and the pain from his burns, the way he reacts to violence against his "owner" can be very, very violent depending on how attached he is to said person.

"I guess… He considers you, if put in most technical terms, his owner," Neru says. "And he obviously really, really attached to you, so he just snapped to the extent that the urge to fight back took over his common sense.

"I'm sorry," Neru repeats quietly, and Rin looks away to hide her tears. Despite the moments she's been afraid of Len and everything he's done, the last thing she wants to happen is to lose who probably cares about her most in the harsh conditions of the laboratory.

Eventually Neru slows to a stop, the other three robots slowing around her. "I think we lost them for now. Do you have the map?" Neru addresses them, and Miku replies unsteadily.

"Len had it," Miku says weakly, moving to come beside the trembling Rin. Rin is thankful for her silent comfort and Kaito and Meiko come over too, reassuring her in a wordless gesture. Rin looks at the floor and hides the coming tears.

"Well, that's okay," Neru sighs. She pulls out her own copy of said map from her coat and looks at it. "I think this is the path I highlighted," she says, running her finger along a path. "We're off course over here."

She points again and Miku nods distractedly. They're obviously all disoriented and an uncomfortable silence prevails.

"So we can head here," Neru traces her finger along some hallways. "There are some small lounge rooms in his area and we can rest there once we reach there. I'll fix your wounds too."

Rin looks up slightly and realizes that Miku, Meiko, and Kaito, too suffer from several wounds. Miku is panting and her arms are completely slit down their lengths. Kaito's trademark scarf is shredded to near-tatters, and there are rips in his clothes that reveal bloody wounds. Meiko's bandage on her face is completely shredded off, revealing clouded, unseeing eyes.

Rin stares for a second at her eyes—her irises are an unnatural shade of red and split by whites in several places into blotches, dots of black pupils spreading across the bits and pieces of red. Rin looks away quickly and she can see why Meiko always wears bandages over them.

"Yeah, okay," Rin says and her voice is quiet like the faraway beat of a distressed heart. Neru pats her back as reassuringly as she can.

"Does that wound hurt?" Neru asks, gesturing at her split chest. "It looks painful."

"I'm okay," Rin says, her voice unintentionally gaining a bitter, angry edge. She turns away quickly to hide her frustration as her fists clench angrily.

Neru says nothing more as they continue in tense, wordless silence.


	11. Chapter 11

_so this is the penultimate upload i'm going to make...not counting the epilogue, though. thanks for reading along guys, i really appreciate it! this is the 3rd-to-last chapter, but essentially the second-to-last. _

_um so thanks a lot guys. after this story i'm going to focus on uploading my Nanowrimo from 2010 and that other story i uploaded. um. i also forgot to mention that last chapter we reached 50,000 words! of course i'm not done with the story yet, though, so we still have a bit to go..._

* * *

.Chapter11

In the depths of the night, Rin sighs and pulls her arms around herself, hugging herself despite the heat that emanates from the hidden, whispering heater on the other side of the room. The other robots, Neru, and Mikuo are asleep on mattresses spread on the ground, and yet she sits in a chair, having slipped out from under the sheets and out of bed.

Rin feels cold and empty listening to the sound of the others sleeping, their breathing pulsating through the room and weaving together with the constant, held-out murmur of the heater. All of their breaths are distinctive, Rin notes, Neru and Miku's more shallow and quick while Kaito's is deep and dreamy.

She holds her hand to her chest and sighs. Neru has fixed the wound and she looks fine again, but Len's distinctive, wispy and somewhat wheezy breathing is nowhere nearby and her heart plummets. Then she stands, deciding she needs some fresh air.

Maybe it's not the smartest thing she's done, considering that scientists could find her, but she skirts around the small room Neru has chosen for them to rest in the vast laboratory. She walks nearly silently around the slumbering robots and places her hand on the metal doorknob that leads to outside. It's cold in her hands from the icy chill of the unlit night and she turns it, slowly, carefully. The door creaks as it opens and she cringes at the noise, glancing back at the other robots with paranoia. Kaito tosses and turns in his sleep and mutters something about ice cream, but other than that no one moves.

Rin heads outside. The cooler, fresher air from outside whooshes around her face as she enters the room outside, large and rectangular. From the walls shine lights inside tanks built into the walls, probably built to make the area look nicer. Fish and turtles swim aimlessly within.

Rin presses her face against the cool glass, watching the multicolored fish move inside, the golden light from above dappling their scales. She watches them move in the water so peacefully, some glancing at her for seconds at a time before swimming away in fear.

"You're just like me," Rin whispers, stroking the glass with her fingers, watching them illuminate from the backlight. "You're afraid now, but you'll see, one day. You'll miss what you fear most, once everything's gone."

With this, she turns away, walking away and letting the darkness envelope her on all sides. In the darkness, she feels at peace for a reason she cannot comprehend. She walks forward, forward aimlessly, not wondering once where she is. The hallways are nearly completely dark in the non-working hours of the night and she skirts near the walls to make sure she doesn't hit anything, running her fingers along the cool and smooth concrete on the walls.

And in the darkness, Rin sees a light. It's warm and welcoming, casting a golden glow on her face, almost like Len's ponytail. Blindly, she runs towards it, her feet pattering on the floor like the beats of a dove's wings. Closer and closer she comes until the light seems to envelope her.

"S20-756?"

The voice is unfamiliar, deep and strangely calm. Rin looks up in surprise and her heart plummets, her silent but happy reverie ending and shattering in an instant.

"You're a scientist," she says bluntly, her eyes glazing over and turning to splinters of ice. The scientist smiles, the golden lamp in his hand dangling and casting overly sweet honey over the scene.

"Yes, I am," he says, smoothing his short-cropped black hair and adjusting his rimless glasses. "My name is Kiyoteru, second in command to Gakupo. And you're going to have to be taken away—."

Before he can finish his sentence, Rin is off, sprinting through the halls, her golden hair streaming behind her. Kiyoteru lets out an angry "hey!" and gives chase, following her.

"I've got to escape," Rin whispers to herself, suddenly afraid of what the others will think if she's captured. Will they think she was stupid, or simply upset? But she runs on blindly, ignoring the desperate questions pounding in her head.

Thankfully, small lights begin to appear, little candle-like lamps fixated to the walls, and she continues running, running through the dark halls. It seems like forever, and her legs are tiring. The footsteps of the approaching scientist get louder and louder, closer and closer. Rin tries to run harder, faster, but her legs are melting beneath her and pain clouds her senses as she pants heavily.

When she doesn't think she can take it anymore she stumbles forward, coughing from the effort. She can hear the scientist approaching, but she thinks if she runs anymore she'll positively explode. Her eyes flick around the room she's in and she spies a door with a blatant, white sigh on it.

"_High Danger Room: Fatal Contents". _Rin barely has time to think about what lies within when she leaps to the door, pulls it open, and jumps in. She knows, due to the sign, the scientist will most likely not follow her.

The room is pitch black, dark, and feels claustrophobic and small, the air overused and stuffy, but other than that Rin notices nothing strange. Outside she hears approaching footsteps, then fervent cursing right outside the door and the jangle of metal against metal. Then the footsteps seem to go away and all is silent. Rin breathes out in relief, but her relief doesn't last long.

From the back of the tiny room, she hears the wheezing breathing of _something_ within. She freezes, her joints locking in horror. Masochistically she turns although she's afraid of what she'll see.

One, dangerous carmine eye glares at her, surrounded by the telltale metal of a machine, silver and ominous. The _thing_ growls and snarls like a guard animal, and Rin realizes that's probably what it is—an overly dangerous machine just like the lion she and Len had faced in the forest.

There's a jingle and shaking of chains as the machine moves, struggling up. Rin swallows and backs against the door, twisting the doorknob. Her heart plummets when the doorknob doesn't twist and she realizes the scientist, Kiyoteru or something the other, has locked the door, probably purposely locking her inside. Her heart begins beating faster than the beats of a hummingbird's wings.

A terrifying growl resonates in the room as the animal, invisible in the darkness, leaps at her. She's prepared to feel claws digging in her fragile skin when the chains strain taut with a jangle and the creature is pulled back, snarling. But in the light of its glowing, red eye, Rin has already seen what it is.

"…Len?" she asks, her whole body trembling in fearful apprehension and excitement.

The robot pauses upon hearing its name, suddenly slinking back. The air seems to even cool as Rin breathes hard in the darkness and she wonders why she didn't recognize his wheezy breathing when she first came in. Len sits back on his four back legs, his form silhouetted by light as his ponytail raises and glows gold, the rings around it radiating out in a calming blue.

"Rin?" he replies, his voice soft and beckoning. Rin crawls over to him and he wraps his arms around her carefully, pushing and smothering his head against her shoulder almost forcefully, whimpering. Rin strokes his disheveled hair in her hands and finds clumps stuck together by the black fuel that supplies the robots with energy.

"I thought I'd never see you again," Rin whispers, reaching over to stroke his scarred and ripped ear. They haven't been treating him well, Rin thinks, noticing his clothes are in tatters. She also notices the several extra limbs that flew out of his back are cut off, little stumps of metal remaining, and his original arm and gun on his back are tied and folded against him, preventing movement. Only the lower tentacle on his back still remains intact, curled around him, and Rin supposes it was too thick to cut off easily.

"I… I… thought I was going to die. I didn't think I could see any of you again," Len says, his hands clenching around her back as he hugs her harder. "I… I'm so happy to see you, Rin. I didn't think… I…"

Len's voice is filled with desperate relief and Rin pulls away slightly from their hug to capture his lips in hers. Len sighs in pleasure and his body calms in Rin's arms, loosening and relaxing.

"Thank you so much," Len says, sighing happily, but Rin sees discomfort flickering in his eyes. "I can't move at all with these chains, though."

"How do you suggest we'd get them off?" Rin asks, glancing at the rings of metal cuffing his wrists and ankles. Len shifts uncomfortably, the chains jangling as he does so.

"If you untied my arm and gun on my back, I'd probably be able to get them off myself," Len says and Rin wordlessly goes over to attempt to untie his third limb. There's a string around it, tied several times with hard diamond wire. She begins struggling to untie the tiny knots.

As she works, Len begins speaking quietly.

"I'm sorry I attacked you right then and earlier," Len says, his voice filled with despair. "I… I couldn't think. All I could see was red and black and… I didn't know what I was doing."

"It's okay," Rin assures, undoing the first of the three knots. Her fingers and fingernails are already smarting from the ordeal but she moves the next knot wordlessly, hooking her nail beneath the tiny loop and struggling to pull it up. Len waits patiently, his body shaking slightly from thankful excitement and from alleged pain.

"You'll be okay," Rin says as she undoes the last knot and pats the scar above his eye and a fresh wound on his cheek. Len croons thankfully and flexes out his arm and gun before picking at the cuffs on his left wrist with his knife-tipped fingers. After seemingly forever of quiet picking the cuff falls away and Len flexes his drill hand, which now has the freedom to reach over to his other arm and drill off that cuff before moving to both of them on his ankles.

When all the chains are off, Len stretches out in his freedom, yawning. He sends Rin a happy glance before struggling up.

"Let's go," Len says, going over to the door. Rin sends him a quick smile back before speaking.

"The scientist that was following me locked it," Rin says nervously, but Len shrugs and unhinges it slowly with his drill.

After a while of drilling, the hinges splinter and fall, causing the door to fall away as well. Len gestures at Rin to follow him, grabbing onto her hand and pulling her into the darkness outside.

The path is lit by Len's golden ponytail as they walk forward and Rin struggles to remember which way they went, but Len senses her confusion and reassures her.

"I still have the map," Len says, pulling it out of his pocket. It's a little mussed and dirty, but Len unfolds it anyways and flicks it in the air to smooth it out. "It survived the bomb, so I guess it's heat resistant. Where are Miku and the rest of us?"

Rin scans the map, squinting before arriving at the rectangular lounge-like area with the water tanks on the map. She points at where they had stayed and Len nods.

"We're over here," he says, gesturing at a large, undefined area. "I think. Maybe. But we might get lost."

"We should look for some sign or indication that shows us where we are," Rin says, sensing Len's uncertainty. Len nods in agreement, flicking his ponytail upwards to look for signs. He walks forward when he sees none.

They walk for a while until the soft blue and gold light from Len's ponytail, mingled together, falls upon a plaque attached to the wall.

"E-4 Hall?" Rin reads, pointing at the plaque. Len looks up in surprise, glancing at the golden letters engraved in the marble panel. Len nods and smiles as if to say thanks to Rin and then looks down at the map in his hands.

"E-4 Hall… is right here," he says, letting his spindly metal finger hover over the page before finding the hall in tiny print. He touches his finger down to point at it before beginning to trace it back to where Neru and the others are staying. "If we're in the E-4 hall, it should be easy to reach Neru again if the direction we're going is the direction you came."

"Yeah, it is," Rin says, thankful that she can at least remember that. Len nods and begins trotting forward, still clutching her hand in his. They go on, turning corners left and right at Len's command. Every now and then, Len glances down at the paper to make sure they're still on track until he slows his pace down to walking, signifying they've reached their destination.

Sure enough, the whitish golden light of the tanks come into view, then the tanks themselves, the water refracting the light into rippling dapples on patches of the ground in front of them. The fish move around aimlessly within, lethargically and slowly.

"These tanks are nice," Len notes, smiling. Rin nods absentmindedly before gesturing at the door Neru and the others are in.

"Hopefully no one came in and attacked them," Rin says nervously. "When I left, I didn't lock the door behind me so I could get back in."

"It doesn't look like anyone got in," Len assures her. "How did you get separated from the rest of them, anyway?"

"Oh. I wasn't really thinking," Rin says, leaning against Len carefully. "I was upset that you were gone, so I went outside to get some fresh air because I couldn't sleep."

"Okay," Len nods in understanding, squeezing her hand in respect. "Let's go inside."

Len goes over to the door, Rin following, and places his long hand on the doorknob, his overly lengthy fingers splaying awkwardly over the smooth metal of the little piece. He twists it quietly, cringing as the door creaks slightly, and they step in on silent feet.

Everything is almost as Rin has left it—Neru has changed her position to sleeping on her side, and Meiko has snuggled into Kaito, who's drooling (probably from dreams of ice cream, Rin thinks). Rin steps forward as Len stands back hesitantly before locking the door behind him.

"Let's not wake them up. Come on," Rin says, gesturing him to follow her. Len quickly moves up behind her, his feet shuffling across the ground barely audibly. Rin falls down to the mattress where she's supposed to be sleeping and pats the area besides her, moving aside to give Len room. Len smiles to show his thanks and flops down besides her, looking absolutely exhausted.

"Good night," Rin mumbles happily, snuggling into his chest. Len croons in pleasure as well, his blue eye fluttering peacefully closed. Rin gazes at him for a little longer before closing her eyes and falling asleep as well.

* * *

"_Len?"_

"_Len _is here?_"_

"I can't believe it!"

Rin awakens to the sound of people crowding around her, and she feels Len let out a long whimper uncomfortably and feels him burrow his face into her neck, his eyes closed tightly as if trying to block out the noise and sleep some more. Rin lifts her head, squinting at the light that emanates from the light bulb fixed into the ceiling now that it's daytime.

"Yes, it's Len," she says thickly, her voice slurred from just waking up. With this proclamation her head drops again in exhaustion and she closes her eyes, getting ready to sleep again—

"Rin! How did _Len_ get here?" Miku demands, her voice sharp and high with pleasant surprise. Rin lifts her head again, sitting up this time when she realizes Miku and all the others won't stop pestering her.

"Last night, I found him chained up and locked up," Rin says, and for a second she wonders if last night's events were a dream. Then she laughs awkwardly at the thought—Len is right next to her, so how could it have been simply that? "We managed to get him out together and we snuck in last night."

"You left in the middle of the night with no map?" Neru asks, incredulity coating her voice. "And you _survived?_ There are scientists guarding the halls at night!"

"Yeah, I got chased down by one of the scientists, but when I went in the room where Len was I guess he presumed I died, because he locked up the door behind me." Rin explains dully, rubbing at her eyes in attempt to help her wake up better. Neru clucks her tongue, but Rin can hear the relief in her rebuke.

"Well, that's good," Neru says, laughing happily and patting Rin on her head. Rin stifles a yawn as she struggles into a good sitting position, and Len, sensing the lack of her warmth as she moves, opens his eyes blearily before stretching out, rubbing his limbs against the soft blanket.

"Good morning," Len mumbles, his clear, blue eye blinking up at them. Neru pats his head and Len blinks rapidly, sitting up beside Rin.

"Well, it's about time to go," Neru says, smiling at them. "I'm sorry for waking you two up so abruptly, but we don't want anyone stumbling upon us. The longer we stay here, the more chances there are that some scientist might find us."

Len struggles up to his feet and Rin is astounded by how quickly he reacts, but she manages to get up too, rubbing at her eyes. Len stands close to her, straightening out his worn-down clothes awkwardly and rubbing at his wounds, cringing.

"Oh!" Neru's eyes widen. "I almost forgot!"

She hustles over to Mikuo, who tilts his head questioningly as if to ask what she wants. Neru waves her arms in the air, brandishing her pen and clipboard as she struggles to find the right words. "The bag, Mikuo, the bag!"

Mikuo's eyes widen as well and he turns around, grabbing a black backpack that definitely isn't the white one that has accompanied Rin and the other robots on their journey—it's not _that_ dirty. He unzips the clean backpack and pulls out sets of clean, clean clothing that are not unlike the ones they have on right now—just cleaner and prettier.

Rin leans forward slightly expectantly and Neru holds out her set of clothes. She takes them gratefully and strokes the soft, clean cloth in her dirty hands while Neru begins handing out sets of specially modified clothes to the others to fit their bodies—including their metal appendages, Rin notes as she examines the hole in the back of the shirt Neru has given her.

Once they're all handed out, Rin looks up awkwardly. "How are we going to change?"

Neru laughs awkwardly at this question, and then turns away to hide the blush from embarrassment spreading across her face. "We'll just turn away as each of us change, I guess. Besides, it can't be _that_ bad. You robots basically—okay, I'll shut up now." Rin laughs awkwardly at this.

After they've each finished changing their clothes, Len walks around the room, obviously astounded with the softness of the garments. Rin can understand—he's been bearing with dirty, stiff clothes due to dried blood and the uncomfortable itch of clothes spotted with dirt (from fighting with that lion in the forest). Rin laughs at his antics and bounds around with him, staying close to his side.

"Well, let's go," Miku says as she reties her ponytails into their trademark bunches of cascading green. Rin nods and Len stops his tireless pacing and stills.

"Yeah," Neru says. "We're actually painfully close to the launch wing. It shouldn't take long for us to get there."

With this proclamation from Neru, Rin's heart nearly stops as she realizes their adventure is coming to an end so soon. Miku's face mirrors Rin's excitement, her happiness unconstrained and spreading across her face. Len clutches Rin's hand in his. Neru smiles back at them.

"But," Neru says, her voice becoming more serious. "You can't forget that we're still on the run. Gumi and Gakupo are still looking for us, and so are their hordes of machines. So be on your best guard!"

With this, Neru whips open the door and steps outside, the other following. Neru nods to herself and pulls the map out of her pocket, tracing her finger absentmindedly over the path they are to follow. Rin peeks over quietly before Neru begins walking forward, clipboard and pen tucked under her arm in the same brisk way she's always walked.

Rin follows and Len runs up beside her, nuzzling into her shoulder. Rin blushes slightly when she hears Miku and Kaito giggling in the background and sees Meiko and Mikuo smile knowingly.

"If we ever get separated again," Len says to Rin, closing his eyes peacefully. "I'd like you to know I'd never forget you."

Rin laughs a little at the cheesy words but decides to reciprocate his feelings. "Same." Her fingers intertwine with his and he smiles faintly with effervescent happiness.

They continue on for a bit, Neru in the lead as usual when she's around. Miku hustles around in the back, murmuring a few things now and then in an excited voice. Meiko clings to Kaito, as always, looking for guidance, and Kaito produces a granola bar from his pocket and hands it to Meiko. Meiko takes it gratefully and Rin realizes Kaito and Meiko actually have to eat. She supposes they've been surviving off Kaito' granola bars.

"I wonder why Luka wants to actually help us?" Miku says suddenly, and it's obvious she's been thinking about the escape through the launch wing. Kaito addresses this question almost instantly.

"Well, I don't know," Kaito shrugs. "I've known her for a while, and I guess she likes helping people a lot. Probably too much for her own good."

Miku nods thoughtfully. "I'm grateful for it."

Rin nods as they walk on quietly. No guard animals attack them and everyone seems content.

"It's almost over," Miku says quietly, her voice filled with awe as she speaks. Rin nods and Len smiles and squeezes her hand to show he's equally happy about it.

"Hey, do you still have Luka's number, Miku?" Neru asks as she continues walking forward without looking back at the green haired girl. Miku nods before she realizes Neru isn't even looking at her.

"Oh, yeah," Miku says, smiling. "I remembered to take it out of my old clothes."

She pulls out the little slip of white paper and examines Luka's fine, clean handwriting scrawled across it. "Hey, Neru, we almost there?"

"The Launch Wing, you mean? Yeah. We're there, actually." Neru says. Sure enough, when Rin looks up she sees cleanly furnished wooden doors with marble plates on it, engraved and filled with gold foil to read "LAUNCH WING". It's a nice contrast to the old looking, metal doors of the Development Wings with their faded, peeling white paint. Neru slides her card through the shiny metal machine by the door and it slides into the walls beside them cleanly and automatically. Neru steps past the door, her long, scientist coat swishing around her feet.

"Here's my cell phone. You might as well call Luka because I have no idea how to get around in this wing," Neru takes out a cell phone from her pocket and Rin can see it's small and yellow and somewhat low tech in today's times.

"This one?" Miku says, taking it ever so gingerly. "Are you sure? You really like this one, don't you?"

"Yeah," Neru says, smiling a little weakly. "It was the only belonging I had left after the bomb was dropped on the Western City. My dad wanted me to bring it along on his business trip just in case… It still works like a charm. Try it out."

Miku nods her thanks and glances at the little piece of paper, meticulously typing out each number on the cell phone pad, making sure each number is right. After a while she presses the send button and holds it to her ear gingerly, waiting apprehensively.

The phone dials several times before Miku sighs out a hello.

"Yeah, I'm Miku," Miku says, smiling slightly. "Is this Luka?"

"Okay, good," Miku says again, and Rin watches with nervous but excited apprehension. "Um, we just entered the launch wing. From the East Entrance, according to this sign here. Oh, you'll come over? Thanks!"

Miku hangs up, smiling before she hands the cell phone back to Neru. She takes it gingerly. "She's coming to get us, I guess."

"Yeah," Neru says, looking around with interest. "This place looks like I'd be nice to work in. It's much better cared for than Cell Wing 11 and the two Development Wings."

Rin looks around and sees that Neru is right about that. The entrance is not unlike the lobby in the lounge—windows are placed on some sides, displaying the stars and comets outside. Chandeliers made of tinted glass twisted into elegant, flowering shapes hang from the ceiling and cast multicolor light everywhere.

"Well, I guess we better wait inconspicuously," Neru says, and Mikuo reaches over to the black bag, pulls out scientist lab coats, and proceeds to hand one to each robot. Rin pulls the concealing white cloth over herself thankfully and Len moves closer to her, his unruly hair falling over his eyes. Meiko exhales long and shakily as they wait and several scientists walk by without noticing them.

At last the familiar pink-haired head of Luka comes into view and she waves excitedly in greeting, her black boots clacking against the ground as she approaches.

"Hey," Luka says, stopping in front of them. Around her neck hangs a pink name card reading "LUKA MEGURINE". "You guys ready to go?"

Rin's heart almost wants to skip a beat, but she replies unwaveringly. "Yeah."

Luka gestures for them to follow her with a wave of her black-gloved hand, turning away and walking towards a corridor. Len jumps up and follows, Rin and the others not far behind him, and they disappear into the hall.

* * *

_thanks for reading again, guys. m(_ _)m i didn't mention this earlier, but i'm going to upload chapter 12 and 13 at the same time. yeah. they just go hand in hand and i can't not upload them together. so the next update will be the end of the story!_


	12. Chapter 12

_wooh. here's the end of the story. as promised, i uploaded the last two chapters at the same time. both chapter 12 and chapter 13 are very short, so it's probably even less than normal...ooops._

_so here's the last two chapters! :)_

___thanks for reading along, guys. the epilogue is the last bit before we're completely done! m(_ _)m_  


* * *

.Chapter12

"We're here, guys,"

It's a majestic ship, despite being small, streamlined and white and elegantly winged. Windows line its birdlike body, displaying a comfortable-looking inside. It sits on a launch panel and Luka strokes its hull with a manicured hand.

"She's one of the best, the A78, programmed to automatically fly to Earth and land flawlessly at the company's landing panel down on Earth," Luka pats the side of the ship where A78 is written in blue, the letters and numbers curling like calligraphy. "She's a bit small, of course, but she's not expecting to carry many passengers, is she?"

Len looks at it with interested eyes and Luka smiles weakly. "I heard about your… moment, Len. I hope you're alright now."

"Oh, yeah," Len says, looking to Rin with ashamed embarrassment. Luka tosses her head, letting her waves of cotton candy hair fall over her shoulder and onto her back as she smiles reassuringly at the robot boy.

"So, I suppose it's goodbye," Neru says suddenly, and Rin looks up in surprise before she realizes it is. "For real."

Neru laughs. "No false alarms, I should hope?"

"Kaito and I…" Meiko hesitates, looking at them awkwardly. "We've decided to stay here, in the laboratory. We can just spend time in the lounge, considering we're not really locked up anymore, or we can leave when we'd like. But for now… I think it'd be easier to live this life we've known for so long, at least for now." Meiko blinks apologetically at Rin and the others and Kaito pats her shoulder with approval.

"Fair enough," Miku says, smiling. "I guess it'll just be me, Rin, and Len leaving here, and I'm fine with that. It was…really nice knowing you guys."

"Same," Meiko says honestly, and Kaito nods to show that he too shares such feelings. Luka smiles at them too, placing a hand on Rin's shoulder.

"We won't see each other again for a long time," Neru says, and her voice is slightly pained and choked with emotion. "I don't think Mikuo and I will be leaving this place anytime soon, and…"

Neru runs forward and hugs each of them, smiling and blinking away some oncoming tears. "I'll miss you guys, and I'll be sure to send you some letters through the radio system. And I want you to have this."

Neru takes her clipboard from where she's holding it to her chest and holds it out to Miku. Miku takes it with surprise cloaking her face.

"But… isn't this the clipboard you use for work? The one you always have around?" Miku asks, tilting her head slightly. Neru smiles at Miku's words.

"I can always get another one," Neru says as Miku begins flipping through the several papers on the clipboard, her eyes wide.

"These are _drawings!" _Miku comments with awe in her voice. "I always thought you were writing some notes about us or something."

Neru shakes her head. "Only when I had to."

"Well…" Miku hugs the clipboard to her chest, thankfulness cloaking her features. "I guess it's goodbye?"

"I guess so," Mikuo says, hugging her tightly and nodding at Rin and Len. Miku hugs him back and Neru smiles before Mikuo lets her go. "You've been a good…sister."

"Is it goodbye already? Somehow I doubt it."

A voice comes from nowhere and Rin's face drains in horror as she sees Gumi, Gakupo, and a crowd of guard animals approach. Neru turns, her face horror-stricken as well.

"I'm really sorry, Neru," Gumi says as she approaches. "And I'm sorry about this as well, Rin, Len, and Miku. But this is what I have to do." She pulls out a baton, twirling it into full size.

"We can fight them off," Miku whispers, drawing her sword and narrowing her eyes in concentration. Neru pulls out her baton, her face annoyed and angry. Rin readies herself with her gun and Len pulls himself into a battle stance even though it's obvious he doesn't want to fight.

Gakupo silently gestures with his hand. The guard animals explode into action.

Rin shrieks as a giant lizard scrapes by her, breathing synthesized fire into her face. She screams as it burns, and she shoots a laser into its heart before stumbling away. Miku jumps by her, fuel streaming out of her calf. She glances at Rin, pain clearly on her features.

It's a nasty fight, and as Rin watches them struggle on she begins to lose the fire in her veins, watching the guard robots best them so many times.

They're losing. Badly.

She realizes this with a jolt, and painful hatred and despair fills her. She crumples on the floor, burying her face into her hands. They've gone so far.

For nothing.

Suddenly someone is by her side and she turns, getting ready to fight it off half-heartedly, but she stops when she realizes it's only Len. He helps her up, eyes filled with regret. Horrible, terrible regret. Rin's stomach twists.

"Rin!" Len calls out, his voice torn in so many ways. "Please… we can't do this. I'll hold them off…Just get Miku and go!"

Rin's heart shatters into pieces.

"Len? But you'll get left behind…a-and they'll kill you! You can't fight all of these alone!" Rin says. Her voice catches in her throat. Len suddenly grabs her shoulders, turning her to face him and look him straight in the eye.

"You've helped me so much," Len says, his eyes glimmering and suddenly tears are spilling over his cheeks, dripping down his face in copious amounts and Rin finds herself crying too. "You taught me to speak and you helped me escape from those chains. And now it's my turn to help you."

"You said you'd never leave me!" Rin screams, close to hysterics. Len looks at her with pain in his eyes.

"I can't… I can't keep that promise, Rin. But I promise I'll never forget you, even when I'm gone."

And Len kisses her hard, pressing his lips against hers as the battle rages around them. Rin kisses back, closing her eyes and willing him not to go.

Suddenly his lips leave hers and when Rin opens her eyes, he's gone.

Rin stares at the empty space before her, tears spilling down her cheeks. Miku grabs her hand, suddenly there.

"Let's go," Miku says. "Let's respect Len's wishes and escape."

Rin shakes her head wildly in panic, but Miku begins whisking her away to the ship despite her flustered screams. Luka is waiting there, standing by a stand. She nods meaningfully to Miku to gesture her on the ship and Rin sees Neru, Mikuo, Kaito, and Meiko are standing there as well, each waving their goodbyes. Rin turns her head slightly and realizes Len is holding off the whole army of guard animals, snarling quietly.

"Len…" Rin whispers, her screaming and flailing lulling as Miku brings her into the ship.

The door closes.

The ship lifts off, flying into the starry space, towards Earth, towards a place beyond.


	13. Chapter 13

.Chapter13

He's falling apart.

The others, Neru, Kaito, Meiko, Luka, the ship with Miku and Rin in it—all of them—have already left after he's told them to, and he's alone. The animals are ripping at his weakening form and everything hurts. His right hand has severed from his body and he doesn't glance at where it convulses on the floor before ceasing its movement.

He feels so loose, like his limbs are going to fall apart. A tiger guard animal plunges a paw against his right shoulder and his skin rips gruesomely, cracking. His arm falls to the floor. He only glances at it before shooting more of the oncoming foes.

Teeth wrap around one of his back legs and wrench that off as well, as if gnawing on a chicken leg.

He balances uncertainly on three legs and smiles bitterly at the lion which is now ripping at the leg ferociously and shoots it in the eye. It falls with his leg in its mouth.

The animals close in, growling. He doesn't growl back. They rip his limbs off, one by one.

It hurts so much, but he just smiles and reaches out at something invisible with his left arm before a dog jumps up and tears it off, leaving a crackling stump.

"I'll never forget you, Rin."

With these words, his voice melts and he falls to the ground noiselessly.


	14. Epilogue

_ooooops sorry for the wait guys hahaha ;; since summer vacation started i've been busy with lots of, um, distractions like visiting relatives and vacations and stuff. SORRY about that! here's the epilogue, sorry again. here ya go_

* * *

.EPILOGUE

The ship rumbles along nearly silently and Rin blinks blearily through half-lidded eyes at the rest of the ship. Miku is sitting by her, playing with the edge of the blanket that cloaks Rin like a heavy shroud up to her nose.

Rin can't deny that the ship is definitely comfortable—it's insulated and heated, and there's a small kitchen and five beds. Rin is resting in one, trying to hide from the world in the fleece blanket and Miku is beside her, obviously uncomfortable because she knows she can't reassure her in any way.

Rin tosses and turns, letting the blankets twist around her legs. The intercom in the ship lets out a melodious stream of notes as she shifts in the cloth, sweating profusely but making no effort to move the overheated blanket.

"_We are now arriving at our destination: SOL Corporation Landing Panel."_A synthesized and fake womanly voice emanates from the intercom, blowing over Rin and Miku. Miku stands in excitement and then glances at Rin apologetically; Rin shrugs meaninglessly. The intercom continues in its singing voice even as Miku paces around impatiently. "_We will be descending in approximately fifteen minutes. For now, please stay in the vicinity of the aircraft."_

Miku mumbles something incoherently in anticipation and sits back down at the edge of the bed while Rin looks up blankly at the ceiling, her eyes red and tired.

She suddenly stands, wrenching her limbs from the hold of the sheets and standing. Miku glances at her in surprise. "You're up."

Rin nods slightly and moves to the window to glance outside. She sees a vast expanse of stars and nothing else. She sees nothing of the laboratory, but she knows they've been traveling for a while and the settlement has been long far from view.

"I'm sorry, Rin," Miku says at last. Rin nods to show she's heard Miku's apology and says nothing else as the intercom beeps on again with its drabbles of music.

"_We are now descending through the Earth's atmosphere," _sings the voice in its synthesized strains. "_Please stay seated and buckle your seatbelts."_

Rin sighs and turns back to the bed, flopping on it uselessly and tying the awkward seatbelt attached to the mattress around herself. Miku does so as well on a bed nearby, waiting with apprehension as the ship dips into wild descent.

Rin closes her eyes as the ship accelerates wildly, plunging downwards at wild speeds. From the right, Miku lets out a little squeak with worry.

It seems like forever before the ship begins to slow and level out and Rin hears a thump. The ship bumps around slightly.

"_We have landed. Please unbuckle your seatbelts and leave the aircraft. We hope you had a nice flight!"_ The intercom is singing again and Miku unbuckles her seatbelt, Rin doing the same before sliding out of the bed. Miku gropes for the door and it automatically slides open, stairs unfolding that lead down to the ground below.

Rin steps out first with Miku following, her eyes squinting at the light. She glances up at the sky.

Her breath catches in her throat with awe. It's the first time she's ever seen the real sun, and it's dazzling despite that it burns her eyes. The sky is ever so blue, so picturesque and almost unreal. She glances down at the grass below her feet and marvels on how it's alive—how green it is, how naturally it grows all by itself.

"Hello."

A robotic, sweet and feminine voice rings out, and Rin and Miku turn in surprise. The girl that stands before them seems to be suspended in midair—her feet hover above the ground effortlessly and her limbs are bolted and lined, showing that she's a robot. A huge, careless cowlick on her red hair flicks dismissively at their staring and Rin supposes it's probably expressive like _his_ ponytail—

She doesn't want to think about _him. _Regret pangs in her chest.

"I am SF-A2 MIKI." The robot girl speaks almost humanly, but not quite. Her red eyes flecked with gold scan them with an almost emotionless regard before she shrugs her gaudily decorated shoulders covered by puffy, furred clothing. "You two are S20-756 and C11-983, am I not correct? The radio signals have been ordering us to expect you for a long time." She regards them again uninterestedly. "There is another. Where is B25-757? I hear it was escaping as well."

"He," Rin says quietly. SF-A2 MIKI doesn't seem to hear and continues looking at them expectantly until Rin speaks and her voice is slightly bitter. "He's gone. You won't ever see him."

"Ah, is that so." The robot girl says, her voice plain and unquestioning. "You should be grateful. We will not have to incinerate you. Only it is dangerous—B20-757. Not you two. I am sure the population of Earth will accept you in its ranks."

Rin nods, trying to ignore the blatant lack of emotion radiating from the girl despite the anger that courses in her veins at her words. Miku places a hand on Rin's shoulder reassuringly, helping Rin calm slightly.

Suddenly MIKI's eyes soften and she displays emotions Rin would not have expected. "I know. You are sad about this, because I suppose it was your friend. I cannot comprehend this, as I have not been programmed to do so, but I will help you." MIKI points to a house outside the fence that surrounds the landing panel the ship has arrived on. "There is the Kaai family. They are robot sympathizers and they have been planning to accept you ever since your escape. Please go over there and they will adopt you."

Miku nods to show her thankfulness and already leaves past the fence, walking down the path to the house. Rin feels her heart soften slightly for the robot girl who has no emotions and dips her head slightly. "Thank you, MIKI. We won't forget this."

"You're…welcome," MIKI looks almost awkward. "You models and your emotions astound me. Perhaps one day I will ask one of the scientists to install the emotion program into me. It seems like it would be nice."

"It is," Rin promises. "There are lots of good things like happiness and excitement, and there are also things like sadness and grumpiness. Then there are things in between, like love." Rin pauses. "But overall, it's something you don't want to miss."

"Yes, I'm sure," MIKI says. "Perhaps I will someday. Perhaps I will today."

"That's a good idea," Rin says before turning to chase after Miku, who's already out the fence and far down the path. Behind her, MIKI waves hesitantly and Rin turns to wave back before the girl hovers away, looking contemplative.

"I guess this is a new beginning," Miku says, and Rin laughs a little despite herself.

"I guess it is," she replies, throwing her regrets to the winds.

* * *

_Dear Miku and Rin,_

_It's been a long time, hasn't it? I haven't seen you two in forever. It's good to know you've found a place to call home all the way down on Earth._

_Meiko, Kaito, and Luka are doing fine. I see them a lot in the lounge, always laughing and talking together. I'm a little worried about Mikuo—he's getting some of the old bouts of unhealthiness from the radiation from the bomb. I'm sure he'll be okay with today's technology, though. The doctors managed to actually heal his face to some extent, and they're hoping they can repair it completely. I have high hopes for him. Wish him luck on the operation! I'm confident he'll be fine._

_On another note, you know the special project Mikuo and I've been working on? It's actually a little special project for your birthday, Rin. I don't know if you know this, but your birthday is December 27, tomorrow, both when you were a human and a robot. I hope you like our gift—we're working extra hard to make this thing! It was hard to pick up the little remains and work on new parts all by ourselves._

_Expect to get it tomorrow!_

_Sincerely_

_Neru Akita_

Rin glances at the letter nervously, turning the crinkled paper in her hands. In all her letters, Neru's been talking about a special project she's been making for her birthday, and today is the day. All the talk about it has almost made Rin excited herself, though she really doesn't know what to expect.

"Are you going to open it?" Yuki asks, crinkling her little nose. Rin smiles at the girl—she's the young daughter of the Kaai family. She's in elementary school.

Rin glances awkwardly forward at the crate before her that they've brought in from outside.

"I wonder what Neru even _made?"_ Rin says, her voice incredulous as she pats the wooden sides of the crate. Miku examines it carefully, hitting and tapping its side to hear what may be within.

"I have no idea," Miku says, her eyes wide with confusion. "At least the top is easily taken off." She taps the metal clasps.

"I guess I should just open it," Rin sighs, kicking the crate to try to hear how whatever is within shakes to judge its size. She jerks back suddenly when the crate _squeaks._

"What _is _this, anyway?" Rin says and her voice is incredulous. Miku shrugs.

"There's only one way to find out," Miku says, jumping up with impatience and snapping the top off before kicking the crate down. Cottony material tumbles out, obviously a cushion, and then what falls out next is the last thing Rin expects. Her heart wants to jump out of her chest.

"Oh my _god,"_ she says. She can barely keep her voice level as it catches in her throat and she backs away slowly, stepping into the warm light of the afternoon sun cast through a large, rectangular window.

It blinks up at her lethargically, yawning and stretching as Yuki watches with wide eyes. Rin's eyes are almost equally wide and Miku backs away, muttering with surprise.

"Good morning, Rin," Len says.

* * *

_there's the end, for real. thank you guys for reading and reviewing. i really appreciated it._


End file.
